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BY WAYLAND HOYT, D.D. 



Hints and Helps for the Christian Life, i vol., 
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NEW YORK : 

WARD & DRUMMOND, PUBLISHERS. 



GLEAMS FROM 



PAUL'S PRISON; 



OR. 



Studies for the Daily Life in the 
Epistle to the Philippians. 



WAYLAND HOYT, D.D., 

Author of "-^ Hints and Helps for the Christian Life,"" and 
** Z': y. 7/ f.essons from Distant Days^ 







NEW YORK: 
WARD & DRUMMOND, 

(SUCCESSORS TO U. D. WARD), 

146 NASSAU ST. 



The L.ihR^'^y 
OF Cong K ESS 

WASHINGTON 









a 

^ 



Copyright, 1883, 

BY 

WARD & DRUMMOND. 



EDWARD O. JENKINS, 

Printer and Stereotyper^ 
80 North William St., New York. 



A COMMON trouble with us is a too fragmen- 
tary use of Scripture. But that which was a 
whole in the Author's mind ought to be con- 
ceived of as a whole also in that of the reader's. 
And the raying out of an entire Gospel or 
Epistle upon Life and Duty has long been won- 
derful to me. This book is an attempt to read 
one of the sweetest and most stimulating of the 
Epistles of the great Apostle through, and to 
disclose its multiform relation with the Daily 
Life. 

WAYLAND HOYT. 



N 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

Beginnings, 9 



CHAPTER n. 
Bonds in Christ, . . . . .33 

CHAPTER HI. 
The Gain of Death, .... 60 

CHAPTER IV. 
The Mind of Christ, . . . .83 

CHAPTER V. 
Our Work and God's, . . . .113 



Vi CONTENTS, 

CHAPTER VI. 

PAGE 

The Sons of God, 143 

CHAPTER Vn. 
Timothy, 169 

CHAPTER Vni. 
Epaphroditus, 198 

CHAPTER IX. 
Rejoicing in the Lord, .... 227 

CHAPTER X. 
The Great Exchange, .... 253 

CHAPTER XI. 
Gifts in Christ, 275 

CHAPTER XII. 
Not Having Attained, .... 299 



CONTENTS. Vii 

CHAPTER XIII. 

PAGZ 

Suggestions for the Christian Strug- 
GLER, . . . . . . . 324 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Reasons for Standing Fast, . . . 352 

CHAPTER XV. 
At Variance, 381 

CHAPTER XVI. 

The Nearness of the Lord and What 
Should Come of It, . . . . 412 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Thinking and Doing, .... 438 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

The Strengthening Christ, . . . 457 



Viii CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XIX. 

PAGE 

Fruit, .482 

CHAPTER XX. 
Saints in Cesar's Household, . . 503 



T 



CHAPTER I. 

BEGINNINGS. 

HE GOOD NEWS OF GoD is not for this 
-■- man or for that one only — it is for 
men ; it is not for this favored place or that 
alone — it is for the world ; it is not sectional, 
it is catholic. 

This is strikingly and typically illustrated 
in Paul's visit to the city of Philippi. 

The apostle on his second missionary tour 
had been evangelizing variously in Galatia 
— a portion of Asia Minor. It was his pur- 
pose to go from thence into Asia — not what 
we understand by the continent of that 
name, but a great territorial province of 
the Roman Empire, lying on the borders of 
the iEgean Sea. 

But the apostle is strangely hindered. 
He can not find the light. The Scripture 
tells us he was forbidden of the Holy Spirit 

(9) 



10 Gleams from Paul's Prison, 

to preach the Word just then in Asia.* He 
is in a good deal of perplexity. He stands 
where we all must every now and then — at the 
meeting of two ways, ready to take this or 
that, as either shall be God's way, but quite 
unable to see just now on which the sun- 
shine of the Divine Will falls. 

Doubtful places are always difficult places. 
It brings the great apostle very near us, I am 
sure, to discover that even he did not always 
stand in the clear radiance, that his feet got 
tangled in perplexities, that he even had to 
wait sometimes for the Divine sunrise. 

The only thing to do when you find your- 
self in such a place is what the apostle did 
— to wait. It is hard work, this waiting, 
but it is the best work one can put himselt 
at then. Paul tried a little as to whethei 
this might be the right course or that. 
After they were come to Mysia they essay- 
ed to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit suf- 
fered them not ; and they passing by Mysia 
came down to Troas.f Paul tried a little as 



'^ Acts xvi. 6. f Acts xvi. 7, 8. 



Beginnings, i r 

to whether this might be the right course 
or that. But all the time, he held his at- 
tempt under the Divine disclosure, waiting 
to see whether it would break upon him 
here or there. 

So we, in our difficult places of doubting 
are to try in this quarter or that to see 
whether this or that may be God's will for us ; 
but we are not to commit ourselves irrevo- 
cably while we are in doubt. We are to 
hold ourselves back and mainly give our- 
selves to waiting ; at least, until we have 
reached a measurable certainty that God 
has said this is the way, walk ye in //. 

And the light shone at last for Paul. Be 
you sure it will for you also if you hold 
yourself in a sweet readiness to do God's 
will as soon as it shall be made known. 
That is a very wide promise and unfailing 
— if any man willeth to do His will, he shall 
know of the doctrine.* 

Waiting there in Troas a vision was vouch- 
safed to Paul. In the silence and the dark- 
ness of the night there seemed to stand be- 

* John vii. 17. 



1 2 Gleams from Paul 's Prison, 

side him a man of Macedonia — t le European 
country on the other side that ^gean Sea, 
whose waves were laving the shores of 
Troas — and the vision prayed him saying, 
Come over into Macedonia and help us.* 

Here was the Divine directum for which 
Paul had been waiting. He does not hesi- 
tate. I??imedtately, the record says, we en- 
deavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly 
gathering that the Lord had called us for 
to preach the Gospel unto them.f 

And so, soon, Paul finds himself in this 
Philippi, which is the chief city of this Eu- 
ropean Macedonia, ready for such duty as 
the Lord may there appoint him. 

When, into a right readiness to do God's 
will and a submissive attempt to find it out, 
and earnest prayer — when into such mood 
the light of the Divine direction seems to 
fall ; when you seem to yourself, perhaps 
you can hardly tell why, inclining to do this 
thing rather than the other, when this way 
appears to be opening while that one looks 



* Acts xvi. 9. f Acts xvi. 10. 



Beginnings, 13 

as though it were closing up, Xh^n foUoiu the 
light fearlessly^ then be prompt and brave, 
then go forward. As sure as you can be of 
anything you may be sure that is God's 
way for you. 

And then, if, when you get over into your 
Philippi, things do not turn out precisely as 
you thought they would, precisely as you 
think they ought ; when you find, as Paul 
did in his Philippi, even mobs and hinder- 
ances and imprisonments — then do not go 
back upon yourselves, and subject your- 
selves to all the strain and worry of regret, 
and vainly wish you were where you never 
can be again, back there at the deciding 
place — but rather, believe you chose God's 
will and did verily take the best course be- 
cause the right one, and so have heart and 
hope to sing God's praises amid your mid- 
nights and your prisons, as Paul could and 
Paul did. 

This Philippi was an European city. " Phi- 
lippi itself was a sort of little Rome ; it was 
peopled by Romans, its citizens spoke the 
Roman tongue, and prided themselves on 



14 Gleams from PauVs Prison. 

Roman manners and customs/* we are told. 
And so the very fact that Paul was directed 
there showed him that the Gospel he was to 
preach was not a sectional one, was not a 
Gospel which had only to do with Oriental 
people, but was one also for people of an- 
other stock and habit and culture. This 
Gospel was the power of God not to Jews 
alone, nor to Gentiles alone who had come 
into contact with Jews and had absorbed 
something of their ideas, it was the power 
of God for all sorts of people and for all 
sorts of places. 

This visit of Paul to Philippi was the be- 
ginning of European evangelization. His 
mission here was illustrative of the catholic 
character of the Gospel he was sent to 
preach. 

Philippi was already renowned in history 
as the scene of that pivotal battle where, 
after the death of the great Julius Caesar, 
Octavius, who was afterward Augustus 
Caesar, grasped as Roman Emperor, the 
scepter of the world, he having defeated, 
here at Philippi, Brutus and Cassius. 



Beginnings, 1 5 

It was to be henceforth more renowned 
in history as the place where the humble 
apostle, with no armor on his breast, nor 
with any armies beneath his hand, was to 
begin the contest for the supremacy of 
Christ in Europe, with weapons which 
though not carnal, were yet mighty through 
God to the pulling down of strongholds. 

So here in this Philippi, which was the 
gateway for this universal Gospel into Eu- 
rope, Paul began to gather a church of the 
Lord Jesus. 

Lydia, the seller of purple, you will re- 
member, was the first convert. She was of 
the city of Thyatira — one of those very 
cities in that Asia where Paul had been for- 
bidden to preach. She had passed over to 
Philippi, which furnished a good market 
for her wares, that she might ply her busi- 
ness. 

This Lydia is one among many instances 
in the Scripture of the way in which the 
Lord comes to people with fresh blessing 
and disclosure alo7ig the line of the daily 



1 6 Glemns from Paul's Prison, 

duty. It is a very common heresy that one 
must retire from the daily business and 
dut}'^ that one may get on well in religion. 
It is a thought far too usual that the relig- 
ious life is a life aside from the dusty daily 
paths of a secular occupation, and not a life 
for them and in them. We are not Roman- 
ists, but the Romish notion of a monastery 
or nunnery — of a life separated from rather 
than interpenetrating with pure, sweet im- 
pulse the store, the street, the home — is a 
notion infecting too much our Protestant- 
ism. But nothing can be farther from the 
Scripture than such a thought for life. 
Christ came to Matthew when he was seated 
at his taxing place. Christ called Peter and 
Andrew while they were working at their 
fishing-nets. And the good news comes to 
Lydia while she is here in this strange city 
of Philippi, plying her trade of purple-sell- 
ing. And, being converted, she was not 
converted from purple-selling ; she was con- 
verted into purple-selling w^ith a new and 
grander motive, that she might now dye 
her goods thoroughly and sell them honest- 



Beginnings, 17 

iy for the glory of the Lord. You do not 
need to retire from business in order to be 
a better Christian. What you need in order 
to be a better Christian is to put more of 
Christ into your business. 

You remember the circumstances of her 
conversion. There were so few Jews in this 
European city of Philippi they could not 
support a synagogue. They had only a 
little, cheap, flimsy structure by the river- 
side, not dignified by the title synagogue, 
called only a praying-place. Lydia was a 
proselyte who met with the few Jews at this 
praying-place to worship the true God. 
Thither on the Sabbath Paul and his com- 
panions went, and, meeting but a few 
women only, began to tell of the crucified 
and risen Christ. And as they talked the 
Lord opened the heart of Lydia. She be- 
came a Christian. And the first stone of the 
great Temple of a Christianized Europe was 
laid. 

If your Sunday-school class is small and 
its outlook does not seem promising, do not 
grow discouraged, and give up, and refuse. 



1 8 Gleams fro7n Paul 's Prison. 

to teach it. You can not tell what may 
come out of the small chance even, you 
think you have. A Christianized Europe, 
the bringing of Christianity into contact 
with the ruling races of the world, began 
there in that meagre service, in that poor 
praying-place, by that river-side in Philippi. 
A deacon was speaking to a visitor about 
his pastor's want of success — perhaps he had 
often nagged the pastor about it, too, it 
would give him such heart for his duty. 
"Well,'' said the visitor, "what is the 
proof?" "Proof? Why, last year only one 
person joined the church." " Sir, who was 
that one?" "I don't know." "You ..mst 
know, what was his name ? " He looks into 
the church book, and finds that the only 
one added to the church that year is " Rob- 
ert Moffatt." Well, but that pastor, in add- 
ing Robert Moffat to the church, added 
generations to the church added a heroic 
missionary to the church and all his glori- 
ous work, added a Christianized South 
Africa to the church, added a fit and help- 
ful wife for David Livingstone to the 



Beghinings, 19 

church, for Mrs. Livingstone was Dr. Mof- 
fat*s daughter. You can not tell what you 
may be doing when you do even what seems 
a little work for God. Lydia was the seed 
out of which a Christianized Europe sprang, 
and out of that a Christianized America. 
So do not be discouraged, toiling one ; toil 
on. You are building better than you 
know. He that goeth forth and weepeth, 
bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come 
again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves 
with him.* 

Well, as soon as Lydia became Christian, 
and her household with her, and had confess- 
ed t.jir faith in Christ in baptism, the fruits 
of Christianity began immediately to ap- 
pear. That is a poor Christianity, even a 
sham one, in which some Christian fruitage 
does not make itself manifest. la her case 
a beautiful Christian hospitality thrust forth 
its clusters. "If ye have judged me to be 
faithful to the Lord," said Lvdia to Paul 
and his companions, "come into my house 



''-' Ps. cxxvi. 6. 



20 Gleams from Paul's Prison. 

and abide there/' and she constrained 
them.* So the little church in Philippi got 
a rooting place and a meeting-place. 

For a good while the work went quietly 
and swiftly on, and other converts were 
multiplied. 

Then, you will remember Paul wrought 
cure upon a poor demon-possessed slave- 
girl, whose ravings, taken for soothsayings 
among the superstitious populace, brought 
much gain for her masters. The fact that 
their property was spoiled thus, albeit now 
a soul was disenthralled, fired their anger. 
The masters stir up a mob against Paul 
and Silas. Without inquiry, and permitting 
them no word for their defence, the Roman 
officials give the order — Summovete^ lictors^ 
despoliate^ verberate—r^vciON^ them, lictors, 
strip theni, scourge them. 

The terrific punishment is inflicted. For- 
ty times save one the thongs cut into their 
bared backs. 

Then they are thrust into the inner prison, 



* Acts xvi. 15, 



Beginnings, 21 

and their feet are made fast in stocks. But 
their souls are free. Prayers can not be 
fettered, neither songs of praise ; and these 
mount heavenward from the prison glooms. 

Then there is the earthquake.- And soon 
their jailor and his household are baptized 
converts. And the magistrates, hearing 
that they have unwittingly beaten Roman 
citizens, release the prisoners with honor. 

And they went out of the prison and en- 
tered into the house of Lydia, and when 
they had seen the brethren, they comforted 
them and departed.* 

And so the church at Philippi has become 
permanently established. 

Ten years now have sped away, and Paul 
is a prisoner at Rome for the first time. 

Through all these years this church at 
Philippi has been steadily growing, and 
grandly keeping the faith. 

It has been also distinguished by a singu- 
lar and sincere affection for the apostle. 
Twice when he was in Thessaionica, and 



Acts xvi. 40. 



22 Gleams from Paul's Prison, 

once when he was at Athens, they have sen- 
sitively remembered his necessities. Now, 
a prisoner at Rome awaiting his trial, but 
living in his own hired apartments, he is 
again in need. Perhaps he must have 
money for his house rent ; for, chained as 
he is now all the time to a Roman soldier, 
his wrist manacled to the wrist of his con- 
stant keeper, he is hindered from plying 
his trade of tent making, by means of which, 
before, so many times he has himself minis- 
tered to his own wants. And now again for 
the fourth time, this loving Philippian 
church is mindful of him. They send to 
him one of their number, Epaphroditus, 
bidding him carry to their beloved apostle 
a liberal supply of means. 

And this Epistle to the Fhilippians^ so full 
of a thankful joy and an outbursting love, 
and the serenity of a quiet heart, Paul writes 
to be taken back to this loving church by 
this same Epaphroditus, in recognition of 
their sweet mindfulness. It was written 
from Rome to these Philippians at the end 
of the year 62 or at the beginning of the 



Beginnings, 23 

year 6^^ after Christ, as nearly all critics now 
agree. 

Here is its loving Salutation and Intro- 
duction : 

" Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all 
the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with 
the bishops and deacons : Grace to you and peace 
from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 

** I thank my God upon all my remembrance of you, 
always in every supplication of mine on behalf of you 
all making my supplication with joy, for your fellow- 
ship in furtherance of the gospel from the first day 
until now ; being confident of this very thing, that he 
which began a good work in you will perfect it until 
the day of Jesus Christ : even as it is right for me to 
be thus minded on behalf of you all, because I have 
you in my heart, inasmuch as, both in my bonds and 
in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye all 
are partakers with me of grace. For God is my wit- 
ness, how I long after you all in the tender mercies of 
Christ Jesus. And this I pray, that your love may 
abound yet more and more in knowledge and all dis- 
cernment ; so that ye may approve the things that are 
excellent ; that ye may be sincere and void of oifence 
unto the day of Christ ; being filled with the fruits of 
righteousness, which are through Jesus Christ, unto 
the glory and praise of God." '^ 



* Philippians i. i-ir, new version. 



2 4 Glea7ns fi'om PaiiVs Prison, 

So much for the beginnings of both church 
and epistle. It is from such side_, lights of 
origin and purpose that we always gain 
deeper and clearer knowledge of any writ- 
ing. 

In the briefest way gather now some of 
the practical truths this Salutation and In- 
troduction hold. 

The noblest title for a man. Learn what 
that is. Paul and Timotheus, the servants 
of Jesus Christ. That is the noblest title 
for a man — the servant of Jesus Christ! 
Not alone in this epistle, but in nearly all 
his others, Paul thus announces himself ; 
and that word servant is in the original a 
very tremendous one. It does not mean a 
hired servant ; it means an enthralled ser- 
vant, a bond servant. Than this, I claim, no 
higher honor or title, says the apostle, than 
that I be an enthralled one to Jesus Christ. 
And can there be for us a nobler title ? To 
some one or to some what our hearts and 
lives must be enthralled. To some main 
purpose must we give ourselves. After 



Beginnings, 25 

some ideal must we go chasing. It is the 
ideal which rules the life. As a man think- 
eth in his heart so is he. What nobler 
thought for life possible than the yielding 
of all our hopes and plans, our lives and en- 
ergies into glad slavery to Jesus Christ. 

Who Christia7is a7'e. Again, learn that. 
To all the saints in Christ Jesus which are 
at Philippi. Christians are saints ; that is 
to say, they are separated, dedicated, de- 
voted people — that is the meaning of the 
word. He. is a saint, and so a Christian, 
who is preponderatingly devoted to God, 
the balance of whose life dips in the main 
and on the whole Godward. It does not 
follow, as some wild people in our day seem 
to imagine, that to be a dedicated, devoted, 
and so saintly person, is to be a perfect one. 
As we shall come to see, these Philippian 
saints were by no means perfect, good as 
Paul thought them. Here is a young ap- 
prentice bound out to learn a trade ; he is 
dedicated to that trade ; but it does not fol- 
low that he has become a perfect workman. 
He is only devoted to becoming a perfect 



26 Gleams from PauPs Prhon, 

workman. Here is a young man who has 
given himself to art* He is devoted to it. 
Toward art^ in the scriptural sense, he is a 
saint It does not follow that he Is at once 
a Raphael or a Michael Angelo, He is only 
devoted to becoming the utmost artist that 
he can. So a Christian is a saint because he 
is devoted to Christlikeness, but he is not 
yet Christlike* Let us glory in sainthood, 
in devotement to such ideal. Let us be de- 
voted to such ideal— that is the meaning of 
our sainthood. But let us not degrade that 
magnificent ideal by imagining that yet in 
our poor lives we have given it perfect illus- 
tration. 

Th^ simplicity of the organization of the early 
church. Again, learn that. With its bishops 
and deacons. No hierarchical prelacy here, 
No three orders of the ministry— bishops, 
priests, and deacons. But simply these — > 
bishops or presbyters or elders, and deacons. 
Episcopacy is not scriptural ; as all the best 
church historians admit, it is post-scriptural. 

The privilege gf the Christian, Again, 
learn that. Grace be unto you and peace. 



Begmnings. 27 

Grace is the Divine favor manifested in Je- 
sus Christ ; peace is the fruit and issue of 
that Divine favor in the heart. This is your 
privilege and mine, if v/e are Christians — to 
be sure of God's favor and so to have quiet, 
joyful hearts. 

" Why should the children of a king 
Go mourning all their days ? " 

A constant habit of prayer for others. Again, 
learn that. Imprisoned at Rome, Paul 
could not bless these Philippians with the 
ministry of presence and of personal speech, 
but he could bless them with the ministry 
of prayer. That was a ministry of the ut- 
most value. The effectual fervent prayer of 
a righteous man availeth much. The great 
apostle esteemed this ministry as of the 
highest worth. Read through his epistles, 
and it is even startling to notice how con- 
stantly he gave himself to prayer for others, 
and how earnestly he besought others* 
prayers for himself. You -may seem to 
yourself much hindered in your attempts at 
doing good. You may even seem to be like 



28 Glea7ns from Paul's Prison, 

Paul, imprisoned from active service. But 
there is this co'ntrolling benignant min- 
istry yet left you. The sick bed can not 
hinder that ; , a throng of secular duties 
need not. For your church, for your Lord's 
cause, for your friends you can still pray ! 
How much are you using this grand minis- 
try of prayer ? 

What is a minister's chief joy and help. 
Again, learn that. Making my prayer for 
you all with joy ior your fellowship in regard 
to the Gospel from the first day until now. 
That word fellowship means co-operation. 
Oh, what a boon is that to any minister — a 
co-operating people ; a people girded for 
duty, a people in their pews when he is in 
the pulpit ; a people standing with him in 
the social service of the week-night prayer- 
meeting ; a people transmuting his sermons 
into life, so making them winged as arrows 
are, and sending them flying to their target. 
Do 3^ou want to help your minister as Paul 
was helped by these Philippians ? Your 
co-operation shall make him strong. Your 
refusal of such co-operation rrfakes him 



Beginnings, 29 

what Samson was when his locks were 
shorn. 

I read once of a minister's dream. " I 
dreamed/' he said, " that I was hitched to a 
carriage, attempting to draw it through the 
mud which covered the street in front of 
my house. How or why I had been assign- 
ed that position, I could not explain ; but 
there I was, pulling with all my might, as if 
I had been the best carriage-horse in the 
town. I had reached a point not far from 
the church, when the mud seemed to get 
deeper and deeper, and the carriage to draw 
so heavily that I gasped for breath and al- 
most sank down exhausted. This seemed 
the more inexplicable, when, looking back, 
I saw the entire congregation behind the 
carriage, apparently pushing it along. But 
the more I tried the harder it became, until 
finally I was forced to stop and examine the 
difficulty. I went to the rear, where I sup- 
posed was the congregation, but nobody 
could be found. I called, but no answer. I 
repeated the call, but still no reply. By- 
and-by a voice called out, * Hallo ! ' and 



30 Gleams from PauVs Prison. 

looking up, whom should I see but one of 
the deacons looking complacently out of 
the window, and upon going to the door of 
the carriage, what was my astonishment to 
behold the whole congregation quietly sit- 
ting inside ! " 

What can a minister do when everybody 
will ride and nobody will co-operatingly 
pull ? 

A glorious confidence. Again, learn this. 
Being confident of this very thing, that he 
which began a good work in you will perfect 
it up to the day of Jesus Christ. Here is the 
old doctrine of the final perseverance of the 
saints. It is a doctrine stimulating, refresh- 
ing. When God takes a man in hand. He 
does not let him go. Beginning with him, 
He finishes with him, even up to the day of 
Jesus Christ. Yes, the block of marble is 
rude and rough, but there is in it the impris- 
oned angel. And the sculptor is loving and 
wise and patient, and ii;i the day of Jesus 
Christ the perfect statue shall stand shining- 
ly disclosed. 

The Apostolic prayer for these Philippians, 



Beginnings. 3 1 

Again, listen to that. In one word, it is a 
prayer for increase. 

Increase of love — that your love may 
abound yet more and more. Increase of 
love unto knowledge — that your love may 
abound more and more in k?towledge'j in re- 
ligion the way of advancing knowledge is 
more through the heart than through the 
head. " He liveth best who loveth best." 

Increase into quickness and precision of 
knowing — that your love may abound yet 
more and more in knowledge and all dis- 
cernment — so that you may discriminate easi- 
ly, swiftly, unerringly the good from the 
bad, the true from the false, approving the 
things that are excellent. 

Increase in sincerity — that ye my be sin- 
cere — judged of in sunlight, not afraid to 
let the disclosing beams pierce your life 
through. 

Increase in blameless, beautiful living — 
that ye may be without offence unto the day 
of Christ ; your life so shining that it shall 
not be a surprise to anybody when they find 
j^our name written on the church roll. 

Increase in fruitful righteousness — being 



32 Gleams from PaiiVs Prison. 

ailed with the fruits of righte:ousness^ which 
are through Jesus Christ unto the glory and 
praise of God ; this is the ultimiate test al- 
ways, the absence of which brands any 
man'^s professed Christiartity a sham — 
righteousness,, sweetness in the home, hon- 
esty in business^ gla^<i 3jnd ready service far 
the Lord. 

As I write, the shadows of an old year 
gather and thicken, and the dawn of a new 
year hastens. " Give me a great thought 
that r may live upon it,'' cried the German 
poet. What greater, holier thought to live 
on for the year to come, for all the years to 
come,, than such thoughts as meet us at the 
entrance of this epistle,, of enthralled devo« 
tion to Jesus,, and separated sainthood, and 
peaceful and gracious privilege, and benig- 
nant ministry of prayer, and co-operating 
service with your pastor, and glorious confi- 
* A^nc^:: that, being in God^'s hand, you shall 
not fall out of it, and prayerful, purposeful 
increase in all the inner energies and out- 
ward expressions of the life hid with Christ 
ia God. 



CHAPTER II. 

BONDS IN CHRIST. 

PAUL was now a prisoner at Rome. But 
this Roman imprisonment, itself last- 
ing something like two years, was really the 
continuation of a captivity which had 
already for more than two years grasped 
him. 

It is even startling to think how much of 
the great Apostle's time was passed in 
prison. , 

At his last visit to Jerusalem, you will re- 
member, a mob had stormed around him in 
the Temple-courts. The Roman command- 
ant of the Castle of Antonia, overlooking 
the Temple-courts, had swooped down upon 
the frantic mob and rescued the Apostle 
from its clutches. Notwithstanding, some 
of the fierce Jews had entered into oath that 
they would eat nothing until they had slain 

3 ^y^) 



34 Gleams from Pavrs Prison. 

Paul. For safety, and also for his trial, the 
Roman commander at Jerusalem had sent 
him by nig^ht into the custody of Felix, the 
Roman g^overnor of the province, whose 
official residence, was at Caesarea. Felix 
had dillydaltied about the case — hoping^ 
that Paul would proffer bribe. So two. 
years had sped away. At last Porcius 
Festus had come to rule in the room of 
Felix. He, willing to do the Jews a pleas- 
ure, had determined on the delay ing^ policy 
of his predecessor. As Roman citizen, Paul 
had one resource. He could appeal directly 
to the Emperor. " He does appeal. To 
Rome, then, he must go to stand before the 
Emperor's judgment-seat. There follows 
now the journey Romeward, interrupted by 
the storm, and shipwreck, and tarrying 
through the three long months of winter on 
the island Malta. Then, at last,, the Apostle 
arrives a prisoner at Rome. 

But Nero can delay a trial as easily as his 
subordinates;^ more easily, for he must 
answer to no one, he is supreme. What 
cares, the most infernal man who ever sat 



Bo7lds in Christ, 35 

Upoil a throne for the goings on of justice. 
He is busy with his lusts and with his 
theatre-playings and With his luxurious 
idleness. 

And so, two years more, nearly, have 
probably sped away, the i\postle being still 
a prisoner up to and beyond the time when 
he Writes this Epistle to the Philippians. 

He Was not as close a prisoner as he 
might have been indeed. He mxight have 
been — as he was afterward, in his second 
Roman imprisonment^ just preceding his 
martyrdom— =thrust down into some horrid 
dungeon like the Mammertine. But even a 
mitigated imprisonment was bad enough-. 
He lived in his Own hired lodgings, truly ; 
but any blessing of solitude was constantly 
denied him. Day and night, and night and 
day, never for a moment absent, a Roman 
soldier must be with him, with his wrist 
chained to the Wrist of Paul. It Was no 
slight irritation to be manacled into sUch 
close companionship with a roiigh^ rude 
soldier. How deeply Paul felt this annoy- 
ance may be seen, as Canon Farrar has re- 



36 Glemns from PaiiVs Prison, 

marked, from his allusions to " his bonds " 
or his " coupling-chain '' in every Epistle of 
the Captivity. Though his friends might 
visit him, he could get no breath of exer- 
cise or freedom in visiting them. A chained 
Jewish prisoner could not walk about with 
his'guarding soldier.* It was a long, diffi- 
cult, confining, hindering, harassing time. 
The Apostle's bonds in Christ were bonds 
yielding him the shortest tether. 

Oh ! when the world needed so much the 
work it had been given Paul to do ; when 
there was such call for the widest proclama- 
tion of the Crucified ; when the little strug- 
gling companies of the Christian churches, 
just rescued from the darkness, and with 
the torches of their faith buffeted on every 
hand by the fierce breezes of persecutions 
and heathenish temptations, needed so 
much the Apostolic visitations and instruc- 
tions ; when to his straining industry and 
bounding energy and flaming zeal confine- 
ment was so wearing and so choking ; when 



Farrar's Life and Work of St. Paul, vol. 2, p. 398. 



Bo7ids hi Christ, 37 

imprisonment was stealing so many of the 
best years of his enthusiastic and dedicated 
life — this Providence of such long-continued 
" Bonds " must have seemed, both to himself 
and to the scattered and feeble Christians 
most strange and enigmatical. 

And now, the Apostle held here in his 
" Bonds," caught and kept in singular and 
apparently even cruel Providences, is not a 
man at such w4de remove from the men and 
women of the days in which we live. For, 
while there are not, indeed, for men and 
women now, the coupling-chains of a Roman 
durance, there are yet often in the experi- 
ences of to-day the bonds of many sadly 
tangling and most perplexing things. There 
are such things as the " iron fetters of the 
daily life," as the unyielding hindrances of 
poverty, as the wounding frettings of a bur- 
densome domestic care, as a daily toil so 
tasking that a little strip of leisure is rare 
as a rose in winter, as menacing anxieties 
chasing the cheer from duty, as the impris- 
onments of sickness, as frosts of disappoint- 
ments biting to their vitals all rare and 



38 Gleams from PaiiVs Prison, 

patient hopes. Some time since, I heard a 
letter read, the sore pathos of which has 
haunted me ever since. She was a New 
England girl. There was in her a sacred 
thirst for knowledge. Her early circum- 
stances seemed as destitute of- chance for 
learning as the rocks about the Israelites 
were of water. But her diligence had 
smitten the rocks and compelled the 
waters forth. She would know something. 
She would know what she learned so well 
that she could teach worthily. She was on 
the verge of victory. She stood where the 
highest opportunity opened for her in the 
noble profession she had chosen. Just then 
the poor eyes, tasked terribly for so many 
years, gave out. She might not read. She 
might not write. She must stay in a dark- 
ened room. How long ? God knows 
whether she can ever see again to any pur- 
pose. 

Still, then, are there Bonds in human life. 
The Apostle snared there for so long in that 
Roman coupling-chain is not at such wide 
distance from ourselves. He is but an illus- 



Bonds in Christ, 39 

tration of the fresh fact of a baffling and 
perplexing Providence. 

But to have learned the deep meaning and 
high use of Bonds as the Apostle did, is to 
have learned one of the profoundest lessons 
which can be taught us in the school of life. 
Let us sit together at his feet that we may 
attempt a little to make his wisdom ours. 
It is thus the Apostle speaks to us of his 
Bonds :. 

'' But I would ye should understand, brethren, that 
the things which have happened unto me have fallen 
out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel ; so that 
my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, and 
in all other places ; and many of the brethren in the 
Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more 
bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed 
preach Christ even of envy and strife ; and some also 
of good will : the one preach Christ of contention, not 
sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds : but 
the other of love, knowing that I am set for the de- 
fence of the gospel. What then? notwithstanding, 
every way, whether in pretence or in truth, Christ is 
preached : and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will re- 
joice. For I know that this shall turn to my salvation 
through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of 
Jesus Christ. According to my earnest expectation 



40 Gleams from PaitVs Prison. 

and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but 
that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ 
shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, 
or by death."* 

Notice, first, that kis Bonds the Apostle 
declares to he bonds in Christ. So that my 
bonds in Christ are manifest in all the 
palace. The Revised Version makes a 
change in the order here — so that my bonds 
became manifest in Christ throughout the 
whole Prcetorian guard. But in either order 
the thought is substantially the same — 
namely, that these bonds were somehow 
caught up and carried into the realm Christ 
Jesus. 

If any man be in Christ he is a new creat- 
ure — ^but even that is not the whole of it. 
If any man be in Christ ; — have you ever 
waited to heed a little the lessons of an 
opening spring-time ? I saw a mair scatter- 
ing seed into the soil. There lies the seed 
— a minute, hard, brown, unblooming cap- 
sule. But flung there it is in the soil and in 



Phil. i. 12, 20. 



Bonds in Christ, 41 

the sunlight, and the sun warmth searching 
for it down amid the earth which covers it, 
and in the moisture distilling from the dews 
and rains. And in all these things, and 
ministered to by them, the seed takes to 
itself a strange newness of rootlet and 
plumule, and stem, and stalk, and leaf, and 
fragrant, vivid flower, and burdening 
autumn fruitage. 

So when a man comes by faith into such 
spiritual contact with Christ, that by no 
words can you tell the man's relation to 
Christ so precisely as to say that he is /;/ 
Him^ drawing sustenance from Him, minis- 
tered to by Him, fed by the spiritual forces 
which flow from Him — then the man enters 
into an immense and marvelous newness. 
More new is he than is the flower from the 
seed out of which it sprang, for the man 
does not develop from the old germ as does 
the flower, but from a new germ by the 
power of Christ implanted. The man is 
born again, born from above, a new crea- 
tion. He possesses a new nature. He is 
new in principles of life, in perceptions, in 



42 Gleams from Paul 's Prison, 

interests, in enjoyments, in hopes. His will 
is changed, his understanding is enlight- 
ened, his heart is won and warm for God. 
Then he was Saul persecuting Christ, now 
he is Paul preaching Christ. Then self was 
center, now Christ is center. 

But not only is this newness in the man's 
self. It rays outward from himSelf, and 
hangs the glories of its change on all the 
outward things which touch him. Espe- 
cially does it do this toward harassing, hin- 
dering affairs. There is imparted to them 
new meaning. Now, since the man himself 
is in Christ, these painful things of life are 
in Christ also. They are Christ's ministers ; 
they lift into companionship with His suf- 
ferings ; they fall not out of fate, but out of 
a love which broke its heart for men. They 
may bring ache, but they mean help. They 
are the burnings of the furnace that the gold 
may be refined. They are the chiselings of 
the sculptor that the statue may be disim- 
prisoned. They are the beatings of the flail 
that the grain may be broken from its husk. 
And the consciousness of the love that is in 



Bonds in Christ, 43 

them takes the pang out of the pain. And 
the certainty that to the man in Christ all 
these painful things are likewise in the 
sphere and realm of Christ, enables one to 
rise even into the wonderful joy of this same 
Apostle, when he exclaims, ^^ Most gladly, 
therefore, will I rather glory in my infirm- 
ities, if so be that the power of Christ may 
rest upon me/' 

Bonds out of Christ <35r^ bitter ; but bonds 
in Christ are bitter-sweet. And this is the 
privilege of the Christian, to be sure that 
deaths and disasters, blights and blisterings, 
bonds and burdens are all in* Christ, 

Here you are bound. You can not do as 
you would. You are fettered. Sickness 
catches you, or monotony wearies you, or 
death comes into your home and stops your 
hope. But all these things for you are in 
the circle of Christ, and not outside of Him. 
He knows their meaning and appoints their 
ministry. All chastening seemeth for the 
present to be not joyous, but grievous : yet 
afterward it yieldeth peaceable fruit unto 
them that have been exercised thereby, even 



44 Gleams from Paul 's Prison. 

the fruit of righteousness.* And that radiant 
"Afterward," he sees always, though, with 
your short sight, and with your vision 
blocked by tears, you indeed can not. 

Follow, then, Paul's example here. It is 
of vital importance that you do it. It makes 
all the difference between a victorious life 
or a defeated one whether or not you do it. 
Look with Paul upon your " bonds," what- 
ever they may be, as bonds in Christ. Bid 
them bind you into closer intimacy with 
Him. Refuse to let them bind you back 
from Him. 

Paul and Silas, in that inner prison at 
Philippi, their backs bl(^eding from the 
scourge and theirfeet fastened in the stocks^ 
saw to it, that when the jailer flung that 
iron door against them, he did not shut out 
from them Christ. Still were they m Christ 
— and those black walls, and those scourge 
wounds, and those stocks and chains were 
in Him, too. And so their hearts were full 
of praise and their lips were full of song. 



* Heb. xii. ii, Revised Version. 



Bonds in Christ, 45 

Bonds out of Christ are bitter ; but bonds 
in Christ are bitter-sweet. 

Notice, second, that these Bonds in Christ 
Paul came to discover to be ?iot so mzich hinder- 
ing as furthering ones. " But I would ye 
should understand, brethren, that the things 
which happened unto me have fallen out 
rather unto the furtherance of the Gospel." 
And the furthering quality of these bonds, 
standing in our time, we may see even better 
than Paul could, standing in his. 

They were furthering bonds because, 
through their enforced leisure^ they allowed the 
vjritijig of many of the Epistles, 

Run over the list of the Epistles of the 
Captivity — the Epistle to Philemon ; the 
Epistle to the Colossians ; the Epistle to 
the Ephesians ; the Epistle to the Philip- 
pians : possibly, if Paul w^ere its author, the 
Epistle to the Hebrews ; and in the second 
imprisonment the second Epistle to Tim- 
othy. Behold, then, how large a part of our 
New Testament we owe to these furthering 
bonds. Paul's spoken words, in his rapid 



46 Gleams from Patir s Prison. 

preachings here and there, sank into human 
hearts, indeed, but then were lost upon the 
vacant air. But now that Paul was bound 
from such wide preachings, he must write, 
and his written words have ministered to all 
the ages. The bonds of Paul were the 
wings of the Gospel. A parallel must occur 
to you. John Bunyan was bound for twelve 
long years in Bedford jail. But John Bun- 
yan free and preaching, mighty as were his 
words, was weak compared with John Bun- 
yan jailed and writing of the Pilgrim's 
journey to the Celestial City. By this he, 
being dead, yet speaketh. The Gospel's 
utmost triumph in John Bunyan's life was 
Bedford jail. 

AIbo, these bonds were furthering ones 
because they made themselves manifest as bo7ids 
ill Christ in all the palace and to all others. 

The New Version says throughout the 
whole Pr^torian guard, and the reference 
is to them. They were the selectest and 
most influential corps in the whole army. 
One by one they were detailed as Paul's 
custodians, to be chained with him for a 



Bonds in Christ, 47 

certain time. It is certain that to this 
auditor Paul would preach Jesus. That 
hearer must be present at the service. Nor 
did Paul preach without effect ; for soon 
there began to be saints in Caesar's house- 
hold. And so Pa-ul's bonds gave him en- 
trance for Christ into influential quarters 
where, unbound, he had never gained ad- 
mittance. And these saints in Caesar's 
household preached Christ among their 
ranks. And so the leaven leavened. x\iso, 
I doubt not, Paul's carriage of himself in 
his bonds, in a way so strange, because so 
Christian, in a way so uncomplaining, sub- 
missive, yet joyful withal, so different, for 
instance, from the whining whimpering of a 
Seneca in his exile, drew attention, perhaps, 
even among the higher ranges of the ad- 
herents of the court, to this prisoner Paul, 
and so to the Christ who was ever on his 
lips as the center of his hope and the girder 
of his courage and the giver of his strength. 
And thus "to all the rest" the news of the 
Crucified was carried. And again Paul's 
bonds were the Gospel's wings. 



48 Gleams from Paul's Prison, 

Also, these Bonds in Christ were further- 
ing instead of hindering because Paul's 
grajid exa7nple in his bonds infected with a noble 
contagion those Christians i?i Ro??ie who were not 
bou7id. 

A true example, though of a sort the 
humblest can not stay confined. The 
steady duty of a bricklayer rescued to liter- 
ature one of the most magnificent prose 
poems in any language. Thomas Carlyle 
had lent the second volume of his French 
Revolution, while it was still in manuscript, 
to a friend who desired the reading of it. 
Absorbed and entranced, this friend sat up 
perusing it, far into the small hours. The 
precious manuscript was left upon the table. 
At her wonted time, Betty, the housemaid, 
came to light the library fire in the morn- 
ing. Needing something with Vv^hich to 
start her fire, she spied the loose leaves on 
the table, and, thinking them but waste 
paper, and just adapted to her purpose, up 
the chimney went the inestimable manu- 
script in sad smoke. When the news was 
broken to Mr. Carlyle he was stunned utter- 



Bonds in Christ, 49 

ly. " I was as a man beside myself/' he 
says. " I sat down and strove to collect my 
thoughts and to commence the work again. 
I filled page after page, but ran the pen 
over every line as the page was finished. 
Thus was it for many a weary day ; until at 
length, as I sat by the window, half-hearted 
and dejected, my eye. wandering over acres 
of roofs, I saw a man standing upon a scaf- 
fold engaged in building the wall of a house. 
With his trowel he'd lay a great splash of 
mortar upon the last layer, and then brick 
after brick would be deposited upon this, 
striking each with the butt of his trowel, as 
if to give it his benediction and farewell ; 
and all the while singing or whistling as 
blithe as a lark. And in my spleen, I said 
within myself, ^ Poor fool ! how canst thou 
be so merr}^' under such a bile-spotted atmos- 
phere as this, and everything rushing into 
the regions of the inane ? And then I be- 
thought me, and I said to myself, ^Poor fool 
thou, rather, that sittest here by the window 
whining and complaining ! What if thy 
house of cards falls ? Is the universe wreck- 



50 Gleams from PatiVs Prison, 

ed for that? The man yonder builds a 
house that shall be a home, perhaps, for 
generations. Men will be born in it, wedded 
in it, and buried from it ; and the voice of 
weeping and of mirth shall be heard within 
its walls ; and mayhap true valor, prudence 
and faith shall be nursed by its hearthstone. 
Man ! symbol of eternity imprisoned into 
time ! it is not thy works, which* are all 
mortal, infinitely little, and the greatest no 
greater than the least, but only the spirit 
thou workest in, which can have worth or 
continuance ? Up, then, at thy work, and 
be cheerful ! * So I arose and washed my 
face and felt that my head was anointed.'* 
And thus, through the unconscious example 
of a steady and cheerful duty-doing by a poor 
bricklayer, the great author mastered his 
disaster, and sang again the solemn songs 
of righteousness and sin and retribution 
sounding through his history of the French 
Revolution. Not the humblest example 
can stay confined, much less could Paul's 
example, though he were chained prisoner. 
His grand fearlessness, though he were im- 



Bonds in Christ, 51 

prisoned, opened the mouths of his unim- 
prisoned but fearing brethren, and they 
became the more abundantly bold to speak 
the Word of God. 

Also, these Bonds in Christ were further- 
ing ones because the very opposition which all 
this movejnent springing out of FauVs bonds ex- 
cited ^.tended to a ividening of a knowledge of the 
Crucified. *' Some, indeed, preach Christ 
even of envy and strife, and some also of 
good will. The one preach Christ of con- 
tention, not sincerely, supposing to add 
affliction to my bonds ; but the other of 
love, knowing that I am set for the defence 
of the Gospel. What then ? notwithstand- 
ing, every way, whether in pretence or in 
truth, Christ is preached, and I therein do 
rejoice, yea, and will rejoice." 

There was a Jewish party in the church 
constantly dogging the steps of Paul, and 
opposed to his broad, free way of preaching 
Christ. They held to Christ, but they held 
also to the Mosaic Law. They were stick- 
lers for the traditions of the fathers, and 
thought that, somehow, the righteousness 



52 Gleams from PaiiVs Prison. 

by Christ must be pieced out and completed 
by a righteousness won from slavish observ- 
ance of the Mosaic Ritual. Such strong 
evangelizing influences pushing out from 
Paul in bonds, stirred them into the more 
vehement preaching of their partial gospel. 
But, to a degree, what they preached was 
Gospel, and in Paul's thought some Christ 
was always better than none at all. Thus, 
though it was out of hostility to the Apostle 
that they preached, to some extent they 
opened vision of the Saving Christ ; and 
since at least a glance of Christ shone 
through what they said, in this other fur- 
thering aspect of his bonds Paul did rejoice, 
yea, and he would rejoice. 

Thus it was, then, that instead of hamper- 
ing, these bonds were really helping. 

And as for Paul, so " too, for you and me. 
All things work together for good to them 
that love God. O, baffled, buflieted one, 
learn this great lesson from Paul's bonds 
for help in yours. Let quaint old Matthew 
Henry speak a moment : ^^ God led the 
Israelites to and fro, forward and backward, 



Bonds in Christ, 53 

as in a maze or labyrinth ; yet they were all 
the while under the direction of the pillar 
of cloud. He led them about, and yet He 
led them by a right way. His way in bring- 
ing His people home is always the best, 
though it may not be the nearest." 

Notice, third, PauVs purpose in his Bonds. 

"According to my earnest expectation 
and my hope, that in nothing I shall be 
ashamed ; but that with all boldness, as 
always, so now also Christ shall be magni- 
fied in my body, whether it be by life or by 
death." 

This, then, was the Apostle's purpose, 
that Christ be magnified. Bonds were not 
pleasant. Now, no chastisement for the 
present seemeth to be joyous. But there 
was this pleasantness and beauty even about 
such bonds, that, whether they issued in re- 
lease and life or in. speedy death, they did 
afford grand chance of magnifying Christ, 
by showing how, in bonds if need be, or in 
death if need be, a Christian man could en- 
dure or die. 



54 Gleams from PmtV s Prison. 

And so precisely for you and me, there 
is no bond of ours, be it this or that, be 
it irritating as PauFs coupling-chain or 
of far less account, which is not welcom- 
ing and wealthy with the same signal op- 
portunity. Anyway this is Ifeft you, how- 
ever hastTipered you may be, from this 
service no bond can bind you back — the 
magnifying Christ by showing forth the 
sufficient grace of Christ in bonds. I met a 
snatch concerning her lately mistress of the 
White House, and with whose great and 
awful sorrow the world struck tender and 
syfnpathizing chime. Back in her earlier life 
she had evidently seemed to herself to be 
badlv bound. There had been trouble and 
hindrance and constant condemnation to a 
petty domestic care. Amidst it all she 
wrote this letter to her husband, crowned 
now amid the earth's stateliest heroes. I 
have never read anything fuller of the true 
and Christian philosophy of life. " I am 
glad," she says, " to tell that, out of all the 
toil and disappointment of the summer just 
ended, I have risen up to a victory ; that 



Bonds in Christ, 55 

the silence of thought since you have been 
away has won for my spirit a triumph. I 
read something like this the other day : 
* There is no healthy thought without labor, 
and thought makes the laborer happy/ 
Perhaps this is the way I have been able to 
climb up higher. It came to me one morn- 
ing when I was making bread. I said to 
myself : ^ Here I am, compelled by an inev- 
itable necessity to make our bread this sum- 
mer. Why not consider it a pleasant occu- 
pation, and make it so by trying to see what 
perfect bread I can make ? ' It seemed like 
an inspiration, and the whole of life grew 
brighter. The very sunshine seemed flow- 
ing down through my spirit into the white 
loaves, and now I believe my table is fur- 
nished with better bread than ever before/' 
Express what is here implied but unexpress- 
ed. Let that thought which shall make the 
hindered laborer happy be for Christ's sake, 
the magnifying of Him. Be sure that Christ 
has put you where you are, even bound 
about as you may be, that you may magnify 
Him, and even into your imprisoned soul 



56 Gleams from Paul's Prison. 

there shall come a radiance, which, flowing 
out, shall hang with glorious color all the 
difficult duty and all the dreary walls. 
Even as dear George Herbert sings in that 
sweet poem he has named "The Elixir" : 

** Teach me, my God and King, 
In all things Thee to see. 
And what I do in anything, 
To do it as for Thee. 

'* All may of Thee partake ; 
Nothing can be so mean, 
But with this tincture — for Thy sake — 
Will not grow bright and clean, 

'* A servant with this clause 
Makes drudgery divine : 
Who sweeps a room, as for Thy laws, 
Makes that and th' action fine. 

** This is the famous stone 
That turneth all to gold : 
For that which God doth touch and own 
Can not for less be told." 

Notice, fourth, what was Paul's dependence 

that he' might be the man he ought amid his bonds, 

^ For I know that this shall turn to my 



Bonds in Christ. 57 

salvation through your prayer and the sup- 
ply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ/' The 
prayer of these Phllippians and the largess 
of the Divine Spirit^ it was upon these Paul 
hung. Their /;^^j'^r^ — how much he valued 
prayer in his behalf, this great, victorious 
Apostle. How benignant may be our minis- 
try each toward each by prayer. The legend 
tells the truth : 

*' The monk was preaching : strong his earnest word, 
From the abundance of his heart he spoke ; 
And the flame spread, — in every soul that heard 

Sorrow and love and good resolve awoke : 
The poor lay brother, ignorant and old, 
Thanked God that he had heard such v/ords of gold. 

'' * Still let the glory, Lord, be Thine alone' — 

So prayed the monk, his heart absorbed in praise : 
* Thine be the glory ; if my hands have sown, 

The harvest ripened in Thy mercy's rays. 
It was Thy blessing. Lord, that made my word 
Bring light and love to every soul that heard. 

" ' O Lord, I thank Thee that my feeble strength 

Has been so blessed : that sinful hearts and cold 

Were melted at my pleading — knew at length 
How sweet Thy service and how safe Thy fold ; 

While souls that loved Thee saw before them rise 

Still holier heights of loving sacrifice.' 



58 Gleams from PauVs Prison, 

*' So prayed the monk ; when suddenly he heard 
An angel speaking thus : * Know, O my son, 
Thy words had all been vain ; but hearts were 
stirred 
And saints were edified and sinners won 
By his the poor lay brother s humble aid ^ 
Who sat tipon the pulpit stair and prayed.' " 

The supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ — 
not in himself was even the Apostle strong 
enough. There must be yielded him the 
Holy Spirit. Only by His indwelling could 
he be made strong. But such bestowal of 
the Divine Spirit is never denied to the one 
seeking it. " If ye, then, being evil, know 
how to give good gifts unto your children, 
how much more shall your Heavenly Father 
give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him."* 

Close to present facts is this Apostolic 
experience of Bonds. To less degree or 
greater every life is hindered, hampered. 
Let us remember these things, — that though 
there are bonds, they may be bonds in 
Christ ; that though often they may seem 
thwarting, they, are really furthering ; that 



* Luke xi. 13. 



Bonds in Christ, 59 

never can bond be so narrow that it does 
not open wide door for the magnifying of 
Christ ; that for the pressure and hurt of 
bonds there is the inner balm and vigor of 
the Divine Spirit ; and, toward our brethren 
in the various imprisonments of life, let us 
not forget to use and wield the mighty min- 
istry of Prayer. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE GAIN OF DEATH. 

HELD here a prisoner at Rome, and 
• with his case as.yet untried and unde- 
cided, the Apostle could be by no means 
certain what might be the issue. He had 
strong hopes that the gates of his captivity 
would open toward release. But confront- 
ing, as he must, a man like Nero, or some 
enthralled creature of his as cruel and un- 
scrupulous, whom Nero might delegate to 
adjudicate upon him, there v/as a darkening 
probability that the result might be martyr- 
dom — which, indeed, the Apostle did meet 
at Nero's hand a few years afterward, as 
the conclusion of his second imprisonment 
at Rome. 

Looking into a future lowering with 
such a likelihood, the Apostle says : " Well, 
if that is to be the upshot, let it be ; martyr- 
dom is coronation ; to die is gain'' 
(60) 



The Gain of Death, 61 

Which amazing and triumphant word 
concerning death — of himself, of his own 
knowledge, as the result of his own think- 
ing, it was impossible that the Apostle say. 

It was impossible that any man so affirm. 

For this truth of the gain of death was 
the sheer disclosure of that Christ of whose 
Gospel the Apostle was commissioned 
preacher, and for the sake of whom he was 
held in bonds. 

As when that bold Portuguese mariner, 
who, fearlessly sailing round the southern- 
most extremity of Africa opening for his 
countrymen an avenue to India, transformed 
what men had hitherto called the Cape of 
Storms into the Cape of Good Hope, so 
death had been to men but disastrous and 
awful storm until Christ came to tell them 
it might be the pathway of a radiant hope. 

Said Socrates, just before he drank the 
fatal hemlock : " The hour of departure has 
arrived and we go our ways — I to die, and 
you to live ; which is better God only 
knows.'' 

Wails an old Greek poem : 



62 Glea7ns from PauVs Prison, 

*' Oh, race of mortal men, 
How as a thing of naught 
I count ye, though ye live ; 
For who is there of men 
That more of blessing knows 
Than just a little while 
To seem to prosper well, 
And, having seemed, to fall." 

Sings the pleasure-loving Anacreon : "My 
temples are gray, and white my head ; beau- 
tiful youth is gone. Not much remains of 
sweet life. Therefore, I often sigh, fearing 
Tartarus, dreadful abyss of Hades. Full of 
horror is the descent thither, and whoever 
has once gone down there never returns.'* * 

Here is one of the recurring inscriptions 
on the ancient heathen tombs : " I was not, 
and became. I was, and am no more. This 
much is true, whoever says otherwise does 
not speak the truth, for I shall not be ! " f 

Or this, again : " We all whom Death has 
laid low, are decaying bones and ashes, 
nothing else ! "J 

* Ulhorn's " Conflict of Christianity with Heathen- 
ism," p. 74. 

f Ditto, p. 75. X Ditto. 



The Gain of Death. 6^ 

Or this, again : ^^eat, drink, make merry, 
come ! " * 

Or this, on a gravestone of a veteran of 
the Fifth Legion : " So long as I lived, I 
gladly drank ; drink, ye who live ! " f 

To that ancient, dim, and struggling 
thought, upon which the Day Spring from 
on High had not yet risen, death, so far 
from being gain, was turned from with af- 
fright as utter loss ; the only gain possible 
was this present life, poor and pitiable as it 
was. To keep the dead in some sort of con- 
nection with this present life vv^as the pas- 
sionate longing and attempt. Were you to 
go out from Rome to-day, along the 
straight and wonderful Appian Way, you 
would see it, on both sides, lined with the 
crumbling tombs of those ancient dead. 
Where you would think residences were most 
natural, you would find sepulchres. That 
Appian road was the path of constant travel 
for the multitudes bound on business or 
pleasure thronging in and out oi the impe- 
rial city. And they buried their dead beside 

* Ulhorn, p. 74. f Ditto. 



64 Gleams frojn Paul 's Prison, 

that way for the jostling crowds, because 
they wanted, in some dim, helpless fashion, 
to keep those who had vanished out of life 
still in some shadowy marriage with it. 

This is written on one of these bordering 
tombs : " Titus Tollius Musculus is laid here 
by the wayside that those who go by may 
say : ' Hail, Titus Tollius ! ' '' * 

This poor and fleeting life was all the gain 
the^e, upon whose vision the Divine Sunrise 
had not yet fallen, knew or could know. 
And if, gazing into death's blackness, any 
one dared to write, asTacitus does of the 
departed and noble Agricola — " If there is a 
place for the spirits of the pious, if, as the 
wise suppose, great souls do not become ex- 
tinct with their bodies " f — why, then, no 
man could write or think of the certain 
change and mastery of death, except as con- 
fronted by that desolate and torturing "If." 
That " If " — it stood there at the gates of 
death, a taunting spectre which would not 
down. 



* Ulhorn's ''Coniaict of Christianity with Heathen- 
ism," p. 67. 
t Ditto, p. 76. 



The Gain of Death, 65 

Contrast with all this black despair, or, at 
best bat wavering hope, the magnificent 
and tremorless certainty of the Apostle — To 
die is gain. 

Well, there is a man much vaunted in 
these days of ours, and who also most loftily 
vaunts himself ; he has a most magnetic, 
personality ; he is gifted with marvelous 
powers of popular speech ; he has dedicated 
himself chiefly to the most sneering traduc- 
ing of Christ's Gospel. The sad thing 
about it is the crowds so follow him and 
applaud his words, even when, with ruthless 
hand, he attempts to strike down the stars 
of our holiest hopes. But test him by the 
awful fact of death, and, though to many 
thoughtless people he appears to know so 
much, here he will fail you. Here he will 
tell you, to use one of his own phrases, that 
he is " dead sure " of nothing. The coffin 
of his own brother staggers his certainty. 
The only word with which he can even at- 
tempt to light up that darkness is a perhaps. 
Perhaps mind is but a finer form of matter, 



66 Gleams from Paul's Prison, 

and when the material body is smitten down 
the whole man crumbles with it^perhaps the 
longing of love may find fulfillment, and 
there may be the blossoming of a brighter 
life. But the " If '' which tormented the 
ancient philosopher whom Revelation, as 
yet, had never blessed, is the only tombstone 
which he, discarding a now yielded Revela- 
tion, can read at the grave of his dead 
brother. 

Young man, ask yourself thoughtfully 
and honestly, which would you rather have 
the truer, which is best for man, which is 
better burdened with blessing for him — an 
infidelity which, with all its boasting, has 
not gone, and can not go, beyond that an- 
cient, tantalizing '' If," or this Good News 
of the gracious Christ which enabled Paul 
in his chains to say, which grants to all 
men this same boon — if at the hands of the 
Crucified they will but accept it — the boon 
of this ability to declare, with an unquiver- 
ing certainty, to die is gain. 

I said such utterance of unvanquishable 
certainty concerning the gain of death Paul 



The Gain of Death. 67 

could never have reached of his own knowl- 
edge, or as the result of his own thinking. 
I have shown you why he could not, because 
to attain any certainty of a gain beyond 
death was an impossibility for men whose 
darkness the beams of the Gospel had not 
scattered. Says a notorious living infidel : 
" Socrates stands to-day, in the estimation of 
every thoughtful man at least, the peer of 
Christ." It seems to me that man must be 
carelessly, and even criminally thoughtless, 
who can so affirm. How doubting and 
dumb Socrates is about death ; how dis- 
closing Christ is about it, and into what 
radiant certainty concerning it does Christ 
lift Paul. Nay, Christ has done what Soc- 
rates never could do. He has brought life 
and immortality to light. As another has 
most well said: "The whitest line that 
Christ drew across the black surface of His 
time was that which He drew in His teach- 
ing and demonstration concerning death. 
He it was that led captivity captive ; and 
men saw with amazement the King of 
Terrors, spoiled of arms and fettered, walk- 
ing in the train of His triumph.** 



68 Gleams from PaiiTs Prison, 

" For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But 
if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor ; yet 
what I shall choose, I Vv^ot not. For I am in a strait 
betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with 
Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless, to abide in 
the flesh, is more needful for you. And having this 
confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue 
with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith, that 
your rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus Christ 
for me, by my coming to you again. Only let your 
conversation be as it becometh the Gospel of Christ, 
that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I 
may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one 
spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of 
the Gospel, and in nothing terrified by your adversa- 
ries, which is to them an evident token of perdition ; 
but to you of salvation, and that of God. For unto 
you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to be- 
lieve on him, but also to suffer for his sake, having the 
same conflict which ye saw in me, and now hear to be 
in me.**'"' 

So, then, in the light of this Scripture, let 
us go on to think a little of this gain of 
death which Christ revealed to Paul. 

Notice, first, the seed and reason of a gainful 
death. It is a Christful life. " For me to 



* Philippians i. 21, 30. 



The Gain of Death, 69 

live is Christ/' the Apostle says, "and to die 
is gain.'* A death of gain is the harvest of 
a life for Christ, 

Think of the structural difference between 
a man Christian and one un-Christian. I 
think it this, a difference in the orga?iizi?ig 
center of the life, George Washington and 
Benedict Arnold were both in the same 
service and members of the same army, but 
the one was patriot and the other traitor. 
And one was really traitor long before that 
disclosure of traitorhood about West Point. 
Think now of the reason and you can not 
sfet further back than this, of a difference in 
the controlling center and heart of the life. 
The main thought of the one was country ; 
the main thought of the other, self. To the 
one to live was country, to the other to live 
was self. Up to the time when the test and 
temptation and revealing came, Arnold 
might see77i^ in all external action, to be a 
patriot. But v/hen duty to country clashed 
with love of self, country went under, be- 
cause the prevailing center and motive of 
the life carried the day — as it always does. 



^o Glemns from Paul's Prison. 

Now, an un-Christian man, wrapped about 
by a Christian atmosphere and moving 
along the grooves of a Christian civilization, 
may not seem, in externa.! ways, to be a man 
so vastly various from a genuinely Christian 
one. He may wear an outward garment of 
well-doing even quite as shining. But when 
you get down to the reason why he robes 
himself wich such an outward pureness, you 
will discover that Christ has nothing to do 
with it whatever ; on the contrary, self has 
everything to do with it. On the whole, it 
is pleasanter for the man's self to be decent 
than outbreaking. On the whole, it is 
smoother for the feet of the self and more 
reputable. So he is a good citizen, neigh- 
bor, business man — and, I doubt not, he may 
be a. very good one, only Christ does not im- 
pel him, has really, as a force and reason, 
nothing w^hatever to do with his goodness. 

But your genuinely Christian man is dif- 
ferent. Outw^ardly, in places where Chris- 
tian standards of conduct rule, he may not 
seein so different, but inwardly he is mightily 
diverse. To him to live is Christ. The 



The Gain of Death, y\ 

central and pushing motive of his life is 
Christ. The place where all the reasons of 
action take their initial rise, like rivers from 
their originating fountains, is Christ. Self 
is undermost, Christ is uppermost. You 
can not put it more concisely — to him to 
live is Christ, 

And now certainly, this man making 
Christ thus the organizing and authoritative 
center of his life, is at once different from 
the man who does not, and has also entered 
with Christ into closest marriage and alli- 
ance. What union closer possible than such 
reception of another into the innermost 
shrine and stimulating springs of* action, 
that henceforth for this one to live shall be 
that other. The words of Scripture tell of 
such vital and vitalizing intimacy best, and 
yet even they do not say forth its whole 
closeness. "I in my Father, and ye in Me, 
and I in you.'* " Buried with Him through 
baptism." " Mem_bers of His body, of His 
flesh, of His bones.'* "Dead with Christ 
from the rudiments of the world." There 
is thus such a thing as the Christful life. 



*J2 Gleams from PaMV s Prison. 

But now, to such intimate alliance with 
Himself the Lord Christ is warmly welcom- 
ing and to the utmost faithful. *^ Neither 
shall any perish, nor shall any pluck them 
out of My hand/' is Christ's promise for 
such. " I will that they may be with Me 
w^here I am, that they may behold My 
glory," is Christ's intercessory prayer for 
such. " Heirs of God, and joint-heirs with 
Himself," is the transcendent estate into 
which Christ lifts such. To be sharers with 
Christ is, then, the gainful destiny of those 
to whom to live is Christ. And so the in- 
froductiofi to such destiny, the entrance 
into SLfch heirship, must be immeasurable 
gain. Therefore the Christful life must 
blossom into the gainful death. Death to 
such a life can be only crowning, harvesting, 
transfiguration. Not king of terrors for 
such a life is death, but benignant warder- 
angel, making the gates of pearl swing in- 
ward for joyful feet. John Wesley, with his 
keen eyes dimmed with the death-shadows, 
can discern but shapes of indistinctness for 
the friends who stand around his bed. 



The Gain of Death, 73 

" Who are these ? " he asks. *^ We are come 
to rejoice with you; you are going to receive 
your crown/' they answer. '' Let me write," 
the dying man exclaims, but the right hand 
has forgot its cunning. ^^ Let me write for 
you ; what would you say ? " one proffers. 
" Nothing but that God is with us," replies 
the dying man. And then, summoning his 
remaining strength, he whispers, '' The best 
of all is, God is with us," and so he dies. 
And a life which has been lived w4th Christ 
in God shall surely go out and up compan- 
ioned by the same Christ, and what can 
death be for such but incalculable gain ? If 
for us to live be Christ, then married to 
Him by faith, and so eternal sharers in His 
glory, we hold irreversible and radiant mort- 
gage on a gainful death. 

O ye whose heads are vv^hitening in 
Christ's service, bewail not, with the heathen 
Anacreon, that beautiful youth is gone. The 
failing step, the dulling ear, the wasting 
vigor are for you buf prophecies of corona- 
tion. Death is only laying disintegrating 
hand upon you here that you may be built 



74 Gleams from Paul's Prison, 

up into gain unwasting and transcendent 
yonder. The fruitage of a Christful life, 
since thus you are admitted into share with 
Christ, must be a gainful death. 

Notice, second, that, amid the light which 
streams from this Scripture upon death, we 
may be sure that death is gain, because // 
is entrance into consciot/s and better being, 
*^ For I am in a strait betwixt the two, hav- 
ing a desire to depart and be with Christ ; 
for it is ver}^' far better ; yet to abide in the 
flesh is more needful for your sake." * Write 
this in light above the glooms of death — 
with Christ, for it is very far better. 

There is revelation here of a conscious 
being after death. There are some who 
hold the hideous heresy of a dreamless 
stupor succeeding death. So implicated is 
mind with matter, they affirm, that the mind 
sinks into desolate unconsciousness when 
death smites the body down. You bury 
souls when you bury bodies. Your ceme- 
teries are places where souls sleep, while the 

^ Philippians i. 23, 24, Revised Version. 



The Gain of Death, 75 

bodies lying there are shredded into decay. 
The soul is not with Christ, but is still man- 
acled with the body, and sharer in its sense- 
lessness, while the sods are heaped above it 
and it awaits the resounding call of the Resur- 
rection. There is now no Paradise for the 
dead in Christ, but only a long and sad 
stupidity. Body is at least master to such 
degree that its gyves are constantl)^ riveted 
round the soul, though at last it may rise into 
conscious being with the body at the Resur- 
rection. Such doctrine is a horrid and foreign 
materialism imported forcibly into Chris- 
tianity, blighting it, as materialism always 
blights everything it touches. Poor gain in 
death for me, if, shoved over the precipice 
of death, the fall is to stun me into a long 
unconsciousness. To depart and be with 
Christ — it is not into such blackness that 
the window of these words looks. No, they 
disclose to me the radiance of continued 
and conscious being. The death which can 
smite my body can not lay its least finger on 
my soul. Like the eagle soaring through 
the mists which drape the valleys into the 



^6 Gleams front PatiVs Prison. 

clear sunshine, my soul, with unharmed 
wing, shall mount above the glooms of 
death, and go flying on to be with Christ. 
While I tremble at the mystery of death, I 
hear those fear-dispelling words making 
their music in the failing ears of the peni- 
tent thief as he waits tremulously for the 
awful change — *' To-day shalt thou be with 
Me in Paradise." Death is immediate in- 
troduction into conscious being with Christ. 
I can not tell all that may mean. It is enough 
to know that it is Paradise. And surely 
Paradise is gain. 

There is revelation here also of an immeas- 
urably better being — to depart and be with 
Christ ; for it is very far better. We think 
too much of death as a closing ; it is an 
opening. We think too much of death as a 
finishing ; it is a beginning. Yes, have faith 
enough to do it, ''make lenses of your tears," 
and descry the glorious truth, stand by the 
graves of your loved who died in Christ and 
dare to say, what you have plain right to 
say — it is very far better. How much better 
words can not tell, nor our poor thought 



The Gaifi of Death. yy 

conceive. So much better as freedom is 
beyond imprisonment. Tethered is Paul 
now, hampered by coupling-chain ; but, 
should his doom be martyrdom, how much 
better the unhindered liberty of Paradise. 
And these you love, but who have died in 
Christ, were tethered. Coupling-chains 
held them and harassed them. You know 
how sickness made them prisoners, how 
weariness hung its weight about them, how 
care condemned them to anxious toil, how 
age was narrowing their range of action 
how the mystery of life shut them in on 
every side with its straitening walls. But 
when death smote Paul it smote off his 
coupling-chain ; and these you love, who 
died in Christ, death has disimprisoned too. 
They are introduced into all the spacious- 
ness and variety and unimpeded being of 
the Father's House of many mansions. 
Though you are lonely, and your heart cries 
for them, for them it is very far better, for 
them death is gain. And for you too, if 
you are Christ's, shall come the gain of con- 
scious being with Christ, of the better Para- 



78 Gleams from Paul's Prison, 

disiacal existence which death immediately 
confers. 

Notice, third, what, as this Scripture 
teaches us, should be our. present mood 
toward life, since death may be such a gain. 
'' But if to* live in the flesh— if this shall 
bring fruit from my work, what I shall 
choose I wot not." * If living in the flesh 
shall bring fruit from my work — how stir- 
ring with noble, energetic mood toward life, 
in view of the gain of death, these words. 
Since there is such gain in death, then we 
are not to idly drivel in a sentimental long- 
ing for it ; then the poor whining amid life's 
toil and trouble, " I wish I were dead," is not 
the languid music which should sound out 
from us ; then Elijah undeffthe juniper tree 
is not the model for the Christian ; then a 
disheartened, treadmill duty-doing is not 
the service we should render. Nay, rather, 
how much one has to stimulate his energy, 
how alert and high should be his enterprise, 
how he should gladly strain and strive for 

" Philippians i. 22, marginal reading. 



The Gain of Death. 79 

'' fruit from work '' for Christ's sake, as the 
Apostle did, since Christ shall surely make 
death crown the toilful life at last with such 
great gain. I like much that little poem of 
Mrs. Craik's, in which she has set to music 
a Russian proverb : 

" Two hands across the breast, and work is done ; 
Two pale feet crossed in rest, the race is run ; 
Two eyes with coin-weights shut, and all tears 

cease ; 
Two lips where grief is mute, and wrath at peace ; 
So pray we oftentimes, mourning our lot, 
God in His kindness answering not. 

'* Two hands to work addressed, aye for His praise ; 
Two feet that never rest walking His ways ; 
Tw^o eyes that look above still, through all tears ; 
Two lips that speak but love, never more fears ; 
So cry we afterward, low on our knees, 
'Pardon those erring prayers, Father, hear these.' " 

Notice, fourth, what, in the light of this 
Scripture, should be the daily carriage of 
ourselves^ in view of the gain of death. We 
should carry ourselves worthily. " Only let 
your manner of life be worthy of the Gospel 



8o Gleams fi^om PauVs Prison, 

of Christ."* That is to say, play the citizen 
of Heaven. That various pleasure might 
seduce him from devotion to his Saviour, 
the friends of Count Zinzendorf, in his 
young days, sent him into France ; but the 
youth of nineteen, amidst the enticements 
of foreign travel, took this for his motto — 
"^ternitati." 

We should carry ourselves patiently. " That 
ye stand fast in one spirit.'* f That was a 
name exquisitely significant the Moravian 
missionaries gave to one of their stations 
among the Bush Negroes in Guiana. They 
called it " Bambey," a word which in the 
native tongue means " Only wait," *^ Have 
patience." J And, standing fast, even in 
such sterile field they reaped at last — even 
as he who is faithful unto death shall reap 
the gain of death. 

We should carry ourselves with our breth- 
ren unitedly. "With one soul strivmg for 
the faith of the Gospel." § Striving, not 



* Philippians i. 27, Revised Version. f Ditto. 

X Moravian Missions, Thompson, p. 67, 141. 
§ Philippians i. 27, Revised Version. 



The Gain of Death, 8 1 

amongst each other or against each other, but 
helping one another in spreading the com- 
mon faith.* 

We should carry ourselves boldly. "And 
in nothing affrighted by the adversaries." f 
" The word is particularly applied to horses ; 
shying at some unexpected and formidable 
object. How many of our fears deserve no 
better name ! What imaginary terrors do 
we start aside from in our Christian course. 
Walk up to them, face them, survey them 
steadily, and they are not." J Surely, the 
man for whom death is gain should be no 
coward. 

We should carry ourselves with a quiet 
dignity in suffering. " Because to you it hath 
been granted in the behalf of Christ not 
only to believe in Him, but also to suffer in 
His behalf.§ For we know that our light 
affliction, which is but for a season, worketh 
out for us a far more exceeding and eternal 
weight of glory. 

* Commentary on Philippians, Newland, in loco, 

f Philippians, i, 27. 

X Vaughan on Philippians, in loco, 

§ Philippians, i. 29. 



82 Gleams from PaiiVs Prison. 

** A pilgrim once — so runs an ancient tale — 

Old, worn, and spent, crept down a shadowed vale ! 
On either side rose mountains bleak and high, 
Chill was the gusty air, and dark the sky, 
The path was rugged, and his feet were bare ; 
His faded cheek was seamed with pain and care ; 
His heavy eyes upon the ground were cast. 
And every step seemed feebler than the last. 

** The valley ended where a naked rock 

Rose, sheer from earth to heaven, as if to mock 

The pilgrim who had crept that toilsome way ; 

But while his dim and weary eyes essay 

To find an outlet in the mountain side, 

A ponderous, sculptured, brazen door he spied. 

And, tottering toward it with fast failing breath, 

Above the portal read, * The Gate of Death.* 

** He could not stay his feet that led thereto : 
It yielded to his touch, and, passing through, 
He came into a world all bright and fair ; 
Blue were the heavens, and balmy was the air ; 
And, lo ! the blood of youth was in his veins, 
And he was clad in robes that held no stains 
Of his long pilgrimage. Amazed, he turned : 
Behold, a golden door behind him burned 
In that fair sunlight, and his wondering eyes, 
Now lustreful and clear as those new skies. 
Free from the mists of age, of care, of strife, 
Above the portal read, * The Gate of Life.' " ^ 

* S. S. Conant. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE MIND OF CHRIST. 

'"VyO Epistle of the great Apostle is at 
-»-^ once so joyful in itself, or so full of 
praise toward conquering converts, as the 
one addressed to these Philippian Chris- 
tians. 

There was no church which seemed to the 
Apostle as perfectly as theirs to touch the 
church ideal. 

Yet ^ven with this church he was not 
content. 

Constantly, through the whole range of 
the Apostle's feeling, there is the urging of 
a noble discontent. He himself is not what 
he would be, what he longs to be, what he 
hopes to be. Contented he is with his allot- 
ment. He seeks no higher earthly place and 
honor than that of a buffeted, persecuted, 
poverty-stricken, straining, wandering Apos- 

(83) 



84 Gleams from Paul's Prison. 

tleship. He has learned in whatsoever state 
he is therewith to be content. . But at ease 
with his spiritual attainment he never is. 

Though, as he writes to the Corinthians, 
he had been caught up into Paradise, and 
had heard unspeakable words which it is 
not lawful for a man to utter* — though there 
had been yielded him surprising wealths of 
revelations — yet with what he is in personal 
likeness to Jesus Christ, in conformity of 
heart and character with Him, he is not 
satisfied. A little further on in this Epistle, 
and you come to that strenuous burst of 
spiritual purpose — "Brethren, I cuunt not 
myself yet to have laid hold ; but qne thing 
I do, forgetting the things which are*behind, 
and stretching forward to the things which 
are before, I press on toward the goal, 
unto the prize of the high calling of God in 
Christ Jesus.'* f 

And as the Apostle was stirring always 
with a noble discontent inwardly toward 
himself, so was he restless for a better spir- 

* 2 Cor. xii. 3, Revised Version. 
I Phil. iii. 13, 14, Revised Version. 



The Mind of Christ, 85 

itual life outwardly in others. Along the 
immense distance between the topmost 
Christian on the earth and the shining Christ 
in Heaven there was room for immeasur- 
able growth. 

Good and true as these Philippian Chris- 
tians were, and as worthy of praise, and as 
gratifying to the Apostle's heart, they were 
not yet perfect ; the old Adam had not yet 
been completely vanquished by the new ; 
upon the bright surface of their church life 
there were yet evident some ugly blurs and 
blotches. 

A spirit of strife had sprung up among 
them. The last chapter of this Epistle car- 
ries this message : " I exhort Euodia, and I 
exhort Syntyche, to be of the same mind in 
the Lord." * Evidently factions are at 
work ; evidently all are not in honor prefer- 
ring one another.f If there were not open 
feuds and distinct parties, there were rival- 
ries and disputings. In the church music 
there was some dissonance. In the church 



* Phil. iv. 2, Revised Version, 
t Rom. xii. 10. 



86 Gleams from PauVs Prison, 

feast there was, at least, a small skeleton in 
the closet. The dome of the Baptistry at 
Pisa is so constructed that the sounds utter- 
ed beneath it come back in sweet reply of 
chiming melody, and the clash of a discord 
even is changed to harmony as the '' reso- 
nant vault " receives it and returns it to the 
ear. But the harmonizing dome of a Chris- 
tian love above this Philippian church had 
become damaged, and the grating noises of 
a worldly anger and a bad contention could 
be heard. 

All this is evident enough from the verses 
which open the second chapter. 

Let nothing, says the Apostle, be done 
through faction ; * do not allow yourselves, 
O Philippian Christians, to carry on your 
church life through the struggles and wire- 
pullings of hostile cliques ; or, through 
vain-glory f -through the mere emptines-s 
of glory, through the poor and pitiable and 
bubble satisfaction that any one of you has 
reached his end at the expense of somebody^s 
else end ; through the miserable and un- 

* Phil. ii. 3, Revised Version. f Ditto. 



The Mind of Christ. 87 

brotherly conceit that any of you have been 
smarter, quicker, further-sighted, longer- 
headed. 

But in lowliness of mind, each counting 
the other better than himself "^ — instead of 
studying your own fancied excellencies, 
thinking how your side ought to triumph, 
how much better is your viev/ of some ques- 
tion, how, because you are so good, you 
ought surely to win the good of victory — 
instead of thus shutting your eyes to every- 
thing except Vv^hat you are and what you 
want, and so ministering to strife and keeping 
its bad fires flaming — turn your eyes from 
your own wishes and your own excellencies 
to those of others, let each count the other 
better than himself. " It would have been 
absurd for Sir Isaac Newton to have consid- 
ered his servant a better astronomer than 
himself ; the question would be whether 
Newton used his gifts so much to God's 
glory as his servant did his lesser gifts. And 
so the pious Christian does not inquire, 
^What is that man as compared with me?' 

^ Phil. ii. 3, Revised Version. 



88 Gleams from Paul's Prisofi. 

but, 'But what would he have been with 
my advantages ? ' " * Think thus each toward 
each. Be not seh"-seeking, do not make self 
the center, do not gaze with introverted 
eye, all the time, on what you are and hold 
and want — not looking each of you to his 
own things, but each of you also to the 
things of others f — and so put out the bad 
burnings of fierce strifes, and fulfill ye my 
joy, that ye be of the same mind, having 
the same love, being of one accord, of one 
mind. J 

Well, we are apt to think of the Apostolic 
age as the church's golden one — that a very 
fragment of the unvexed crystal sea, spread- 
ing its smoothness before the Throne, fell 
out of Heaven, and brought its sweet 
placidity into these little companies of 
primitive believers ; that there was never 
the least fracture of that brotherhood and 
sisterhood ; that there was never the jar of 

* Newland oh Phil., p. 62. 
f Phil, ii. 4, Revised Version. 
X Phil. ii. 2, Revised Version. 



The Mind of Christ, 89 

parties or the baneful look askance of jeal- 
ousies ; that each looked not on his own 
things first, but first always on his brother's. 
But when we think thus we can not have 
read our New Testament with thorough- 
ness. It is certain that sometimes Euodia 
and.Syntyche fell foul of each other in the 
Philippian church meeting ; it is certain 
that even in this Philippian church, most 
praised and loved of all the Apostle's plant- 
ing, there was the clash of faction and the 
blight and bitterness of self-seeking. 

Toward this evil, which was hurting even 
this Philippian church, the Apostle turns 
himself, seeking to persuade them from it, 
and to lift them into the more Christlike 
life. 

Strife, vain-glory, every man looking on 
his own things — that is to say, faction, an 
empty pride, selfishness, we have seen the 
ugly features of these things plainly appear- 
ing in our modern life ; we have seen the ugly 
features of these things plainly appearing 
among modern Christians. In families, in 
churches, in society, in business they do 



go Gleams from PauVs Prison. 

their evil work. They ought not to be. 
They are spots on the feasts of love. They 
need cure. The Apostle had one sovereign 
cure for them among these Philippians. The 
cure for them is the cure among ourselves. 
Very practical is our thought, then — the 
Apostolic cure for faction^ vanity^ selfishness. 

This is the cure : Let this mind be in you 
which was also in Christ Jesus, 

Consider, then, the mind which was in 
Christ Jesus. There is no passage in our 
New Testament more wonderful than this 
in which the Apostle tells us of that 7?iind : 

" Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ 
Jesus : who being in the form of God, thought it not 
robbery to be equal with God : but made himself of no 
reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, 
and was made in the likeness of men. And being 
found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, 
and became obedient unto death, even the death 
of the Cross. Wherefore God also hath highly 
exalted him, and given him a Name which is above 
every name ; that at the Name of Jesus every knee 
should bow, of things in heaven^ and things in earth, 
and things under the earth : and that every tongue 
should confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory 
of God the Father."* 



^ Phil. ii. 5, II- 



I 



The Mind of Christ, 91 

Such is the mind which was in Christ. 
Such is the mind which is to be in all Chris- 
tians. Such is the mind which, being in 
Christians, will kill strife, vanity, self- 
seeking. 

First, this Scripture shows us Christ in 
His divine and pre-exist ent glory — who being in 
the form of God ; that is to say, being orig- 
inally, pre-existently in the form of God. 
Difficult work here to grasp with clearness 
the ideas these words suggest ; difficult be- 
cause we are holding speech about the 
Divine Nature, which must task our puny 
thought and overflow our shallow words. 
But form of God — what idea can we get 
from these dim words ? We must get no 
material idea, as when w^e say that matter 
possesses form — is round or square, is large 
or small, is beautiful or unbeautiful. We 
are thinking of Deity, and God is spirit, and 
so can have no form at all in such a sense. 
But what does the Scripture mean by being 
in the form of God ? As another has, I 
think, truthfully expressed it, it means that 



92 Gleams from Paul's Prison, 

which, in a spiritual being, is most analogous 
to form in matter, namely, manifested dignity 
and glo7j.^ Our Lord hints at the meaning 
when He prays that His disciples may be 
lifted to behold the glory which He had 
with the Father before the world was.f The 
Epistle to the Hebrews hintsat the meaning 
when it speaks of Christ as the effulgence 
of God's glory and the very image of His 
substance. J Being in the form of God 
means, I think, that Christ was pre-existent- 
ly, in the fullest sense, shining with the 
glory of God. " Whatever the Father was 
in point of manifested dignity and glory, 
that, previous to His incarnation, the Son 
was also." § There was no splendor in 
which the Father stood in which Christ did 
not stand. There was no bliss the Father 
had Christ did not have. There was no 
praise sounding from angelic choirs toward 
the Throne of the Father of which the Son 
was not the object also. Being in the form 



* Cowles' Shorter Epistles, in loco. 

f John xvii. 24. % Heb. i. 3. 

§ Cowles' Shorter Epistles, in loco. 



The Mind of Christ. 93 

of God was being in the might and majesty 
and supereminence of God. He was in the 
glory which He had with the Father before 
the world was. 

Second, this Scripture shows us the Lord 
Christ refusing to hold and use this Divine 
Glory for His own sake — "who, being in the 
form of God, counted it not a prize, a 
thing to be grasped, to be on an equalit}^ 
with God." * Christ, because of His divine 
nature, and so because it was His right, 
standing in the very center and focus of the 
Infinite Glory, did not esteem even this 
glory a prize to be grasped and held and 
selfishly enjoyed. He was no Epicurean 
deity, isolated in His own blissfulness, 
divided b}^ the chasm of an infinite careless- 
ness from 

" Blight and famine, plague and earthquake, roaring 
deeps and fiery sands, 
Clanging fights, and flaming towns, and sinking 
ships, and praying hands, "f 

v;ith which the earth is filled. 



* Revised Version. 

I Tennyson's " Lotus Eaters.'* 



91 Gleams from PauVs Prison. 

His first thought was not His own beati- 
tude. Even the Divine Glory was not a 
thing to be held selfishly. 

Third, this Scripture shows us the Lord 
Christ actually laying aside this Form of God^ this 
infinite Dignity and Splendor^ — but emptied 
Himself. Oh ! all the mystery of the In- 
carnation is in this phrase emptied Himself. 
There are heights in it and depths in it im- 
measurably beyond any reach of ours. 

It was not so wonderful that a baby 
should be born. That strange advent of 
the child out of the unknown into this sad 
and wailing world had be^n taking place 
since, back four thousand years, Adam and 
Eve had bent in awe above their first-born. 
Nor was it so uncommon that a babe should 
be born into poverty, and find a manger for 
a cradle. Caves are not rare in Palestine. 
Much of the rock of the country is soft and 
porous and scooped out easily. It was 
quicker work and cheaper to gouge out a 
cave than to build a barn. Caves in that 
country are sometimes dwellings, sometimes 



The Mind of Christ. 95 

sepulchres, sometimes tarrying places for 
the night when no beter inn is by, sometimes 
stables. So it was no uncommon thing for 
people to be found abiding in such places 
or for a baby to be born there. It only sig- 
nified that the child ushered into life in such 
a place, began it at the lowest, had his por- 
tion with the poorest, that there were no 
separations of wealth or lordly palace be- 
tween this child and the lowliest Hebrew 
baby beginning the course of life anywhere 
in Palestine. 

But the wonder was that He, who had 
been in the form of God, should so empty 
Himself as to be born a babe ; and neither 
in the resplendent temple nor in the lord- 
liest palace, but in such a place. He, who 
was in the form of God, actually laid aside 
His glory, and emptied Himself into a 
babe's birth and a manger-cradle. That Jle 
should do it — that is the wonder. 

Fourth, this Scripture shows us the Lord 
Christ standing in precisely the same relation to 
Humanity in which He had stood to Deity ^ — 



g6 Gleams from Paul's Prison, 

taking the form of a servant, being made 
in the likeness of men. Form — form of 
God, form of a servant, the very word which 
told of His pre-incarnate glory, tells now of 
His post-incarnate humiliation ; what it 
means in the first case, precisely that it 
means in this last case. Thoroughly Divine 
and so rightfully in the central blaze of the 
Divine Majesty, He is now as thoroughly 
human, as utterly in the lowliness of hu- 
manity, as exactly in its likeness. Hold 
these two thoughts about Christ always : 
Without reservation. Deity ; in the same 
perfect meaning, man. 

Fifth, this Scripture shows us the Lord 
Christ descending to still lower depths^ — ''^and 
being found in fashion as a man. He hum- 
bled Himself, becoming obedient even unto 
death, yea, the death of the cross."* In 
His forgetfulness of self from no last limit 
of sacrifice did He withhold Himself — from 
no doom of sin, belonging to the nature He 



" Revised Version. 



The Mind of Christ, 97 

had assumed, from no shame, from no 
agony — -obedient unto death, and that the 
death of the cross. 

Sixth, this Scripture shows us the Lord 
Christ in His Exaltation. But will you notice 
that all this disclosure about the Exaltation 
centers about a special name. That name 
is significant of much. " Wherefore, also, 
God highly exalted Him, and gave unto 
Him the name which is above every name : 
that in the name of Jesus every knee should 
bow." * Jesus ^ that is the name of the 
Exaltation. The Lord Christ won that 
name through His Humiliation. That bitter 
ancient hater of the Gospel, Celsus, drew 
once* a picture of the sufferings of Christ 
upon the cross ; and when he had painted 
Him crowned with thorns and nailed to the 
rough wood, he exclaimed : " In the name 
of wonder, why, on this occasion at least, 
does He not act the God, and hurl some 
signal vengeance on the authors of this in- 



* Revised Version. 



98 Gleams from PaiiVs Prison, 

suit and anguish?" Well, that is not an 
unnatural question for a man who will not 
accept the spirit of the Gospel. Surely He 
could have done it. It was certainly within 
His power to do it. O profane Celsus, your 
taunt is only that of the first torment- 
ors — " If He be the Christ, let Him come 
down now from the cross, and we will be- 
lieve on Him." Without doubt He could 
have descended from that cross. More 
than that, He could have remained in His 
first glory, and in the form of God stood 
forever in that shining. But He could not 
have hurled vengeance, or come down from 
the cross, or remained in His first glory and 
risen into the name and victory oi Jesus. Said 
the angel to Joseph concerning Mary : "And 
she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt 
call His name Jesiis^ for He shall save His 
people from their sins." Jesus, then, means 
Saviour ; and it was only through the immo- 
lation of the self that the Son could become 
Saviour. He might have stood in His first 
glory forevermore alone ; but it was only as 
forgetting self He descended to our human 



The Mind of Christ. 99 

lostness, that He could rise into the Exalta- 
tion of the Saviour Jesus, and lift with 
Himself multitudes to glory. This, then, 
is the Exaltation rising out of the Humilia- 
tion — it all centers in that name Jesus j 
rising out of His Humiliation into His 
Exaltation, He brings as Jesus, v/ith Himself 
many sons into glory. Except a corn of 
wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth 
alone ; but if it die, it bringeth forth much 
fruit. It can stay a corn of wheat, but it 
must stay that — it is only out of the buried 
and dying seed that you can win a harvest. 
That in the name of Jesus every knee should 
bov/, of things in Heaven, and things on 
earth, and things under the earth, and that 
every tongue should confess that Jesus 
Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the 
Father"^ — this empire of sovereign, self-for- 
getting, suffering Love, somehow, at last, 
the universe shall recognize. 

No one can be more sensible than I am of 
the meagreness and feebleness of this at- 



* Revised Version. 



lOD Gleams from Paul's Prison. 

tempted exposition of this great Scripture. 
But out of it we can surely, at least with 
some clearness, discern this wondrous sight 
— The Deity utterly forgetful of self for the 
sake of others. 

And if this mind of Christ be, in any wise, 
our own mind, it must certainly exorcise 
the demons of angry faction, and a poor 
and puffed-up vanity, and a hard, uncaring 
selfishness. Put this mind of Christ thor- 
oughly into these Philippians, and strife, 
vain-glory, a looking on the things of self 
to the exclusion of those of others, must be 
slain. Put that mind into ourselves, and 
we must become the loving and lovable dis- 
pensers of the peace of Heaven. And to be 
Christian is to seek to have this mind, is to 
absorb this Spirit. 

*' Mohammed's truth lay in a holy book, 

Christ's in a sacred life. 
So, while the world rolls on from change to change, 

And realms of thought expand, 
The letter stands without expanse or rarge, 

Stiff as a dead man's hand ; 
While, as the life-blood fills the glowing form, 

The Spirit Christ has shed 



The Mind of Christ, loi 

Flows through the ripening ages, fresh and warm, 
More felt than heard or read." 

We are Christian in the proportion in 
which we have absorbed this mind of 
Christ. 

Behold, now, the working of this mind of 
Christ in two or three directions. 

In the direction of the Churc/i. ' 

For as the body is one, and hath many 
members, and all the members of the body, 
being many, are one body ; so also is Christ. 
For in one Spirit were we all baptized into 
one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether 
bond or free; and were all made to drink 
of one Spirit. For the body is not one 
member, but many. If the foot shall say, 
Because I am not the hand, I am not of the 
body ; it is not, therefore, not of the body. 
And if the ear shall say. Because I am not 
the eye, I am not of the body ; it is not, 
therefore, not of the body. If the whole 
body were an eye, where were the hearing ? 
If the whole were hearing, w^here were the 
smelling? But now hath God set the mem- 



102 Gleams from Paul's Prison. 

bers each one of them in the body, even as 
it pleased Him. And if they were all one 
member, where were the body? But now 
they are many members, but one body. And 
the eye can not say to the hand, I have no 
need of thee : or, again, the head to the feet, 
I have no need of you. Nay, much rather, 
those members of the body which seem to 
be more feeble are necessary : and those 
parts of the body which we think to be less 
honorable, upon these we bestow more 
abundant honor ; and our uncomely parts 
have more abundant comeliness ; whereas 
our comely parts have no need ; but God 
tempered the body together, giving more 
abundant honor to that part which lacked ; 
that there should be no schism in the body ; 
but that the members should have the same 
care one for another. And whether one mem- 
ber suffereth, all the members suffer with it ; 
or one member is honored, all the members 
rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of 
Christ, and members each in his part.* 
That is to say, a church is the ideal 

* I Cor. xii. 12-27, Revised Version. 



The Mind of Christ, 103 

Brotherhood and Sisterhood. It is to be 
organized into oneness. As Augustine says, 
** Give oneness, and it is a people ; take one- 
ness away, and it is a crowd."* A church 
is to be a gathered, consenting, united peo- 
ple ; it is not to be the chance flinging to- 
gether of a careless throng. It is to be an 
animated body, made up of parts, indeed, 
but each several part sharing in the common 
life, and ministering various but essential 
and agreeing and converging service. Fac- 
tions are not to disturb it ; cliques are not 
to split it ; rivalries are not to rend it ; social 
distinctions imported from the outside world 
are not to divide it : disdainful hauteur, 
chasm-making refusals of intercourse among 
its membership are not to chill it ; captious 
criticisms of member upon member are not 
to wound it ; gossipping, slanderous tongues 
are not to slash and cut amidst it ; but with 
sweet and kindly recognitions by all of the 
various ministries of each, as the eye recog- 
nizes the service of the hand, and the hand 

* Quoted in Newland's Commentary on Philippians, 
p. 60. 



I04 Gleams from PaiiVs Prison. 

recognizes the service of the foot, and with 
tender clemency toward the low^liest and 
the weakest, since those members which 
seem to be more feeble are necessary, — the 
whole body is to share a common life, and 
push with marshalled energies toward a 
common purpose, and compel a little of the 
music of Heaven's harmony amid the j ang- 
lings and the jarrings of this present evil 
world. 

But the only thing which can make such 
ideal in the least sense actual, is the Mind 
of Christ. It is forgetfulness of self, not 
thoughtfulness of self, that is the root of 
which brotherhood is the bloom. If refusing 
the mind of Christ, my first question is, 
what can I get and keep for the self's sake ? 

.1 cleave myself from others, and do my part 
toward shattering brotherhood ; if seeking 
to make His mind my own, who, being orig- 
inally in the form of God, counted not the 

, being on an equality with God a thing to 
be grasped, my first question is, what have 
I that I may use and yield for others* sake ? 
I join myself to others, and do my part 



The Mind of Christ, 105 

toward the building up and braic^ing to- 
gether of the Brotherhood. *^ What is it, 
then, brethren ? When ye come together, 
each one hath a psalm, hath a teaching, hath 
a revelation, hath a tongue, hath an inter- 
pretation. Let all things be done unto edi- 
fying " * — unto the building up of the 
Brotherhood, and through the contribution 
of this or that by this one and that one to the 
well-being of the whole. As the stained 
and disturbing city snow flees before the 
sunbeams of the spring, so chilling enmities 
and cleaving hardnesses and staining slan- 
derings slink and pass away in the genial 
presence of the Mind of Christ. 

** 'Tis a pleasant thing to see 
Brethren in the Lord agree ; 
Children of a God of love 
Live as they should live above : 
Acting each a Christian part, 
One in lip and one in heart. 

^ *' As the precious ointment shed 
Upon Aaron's hallowed head, 



* I Cor. xiv. 26, Revised Version. 



io6 Gleams from PaiiVs Prison, 



9 



Downward through his garments stole 

Spreading odor o'er the whole. 

So from our High Priest above 

To His Church flows heavenly love. 

" Gently as the dews distil 
Down on Zion's holy hill. 
Dropping gladness where they fall. 
Brightening and refreshing all. 
Such is Christian Union, shed, 
Through the members from the Head. 

" Where divine affection lives, 
There the Lord His blessing gives ; 
Where on earth His will is done, 
There His Heaven is half begun. 
Lord, our great example prove ; 
Teach us all like Thee to love." * 
* 

But see, again, this working of the Mind 
of Christ in the direction of the Hoike, 

That is a very beautiful picture of a 
Christian wedded life which has come down 
to us from the Church Father TertuUian : 
" They are together in the Church of God, 
and in the Supper of the Lord ; they share 
with one another their grievances, their per- 



'^ Henry F. Lyte, 1834. 



The Mind of Christ. 107 

secutions, and their joys ; neither hides any- 
thing from the other ; neither avoids the 
other ; the sick are visited by them with 
pleasure, ai!d the needy supported ; psalms 
and hymns resound between them, and they 
mutually strive w^ho shall best praise their 
God. Christ is delighted to see and hear 
things like these ; He sends His peace on 
such as these ; where two are, there is He, 
and where He is, evil comes not." * 

But that which, in any case, can make 
such picture fact, is this and only this, the 
having the Mind of Christ. In the closeness 
of the marriage relation there must be a 
process of adjustment. Heart must get into 
chime with heart. Two different natures 
have come together out of different educa- 
tions and different circumstances. Love 
binds them, but probably all along love's 
gamut the pitch of each is not at first pre- 
cisely correspondent. There may be his 
quickness of speech and temper, or hers ; 



* Tertullian, ''Ad Uxorent,'' lib. xi. 17. Quoted by 
Charles Stanford, D.D., in his "Life of Doddridge,'^ 

P' 55- 



io8 Gleams from Paul's Prison, 

his neglectfulness of sweet and satisfying 
courtesies, or hers ; his difference of view, or 
hers ; there may be any one of the ten thou- 
sand things which in the beginning of a 
marriage, consecrated though it be by the 
profoundest love, fret and jar and trouble. 
Such things may be 

" the little rift within the lute, 
That by and by will make the music mute, 
And ever widening, slowly silence all,"* 

or they may be cured. For the Mind of 
Christ is cure for them. If each self forgets 
the self in the other self, if each self seek to 
adjust itself to the other self for the sake of 
the other self, the two selves shall so merge 
into each that they two shall be one self, and 
the symbol likest Heaven which you can 
ever find under the arching skies shall be 
that home. And the sweet courtesies be- 
tween the father and the mother shall breed 
courtesies as sweet and sacrificial and har- 
monizing among the children. A father, 
picking his way carefully along the mount- 



* Tennyson, " Idyls of the King." Vivien. 



The Mind of Christ. 109 

ain side, heard his child*s voice behind him, 
crying out, " Take a safe path, papa ; I am 
coming after you." But if the path should 
not be safe, 4he child would follow, too. A 
father was reproving his young son strongly 
for "fretting'* at his sister, and ordered him 
to leave the room. The boy reluctantly 
obeyed, but, just as he closed the door, 
looked back at his father, saying, "We 
don't call it that when you talk so to mam- 
ma." 

Ah, how much we need the Mind of Christ 
within our homes. 

See, also, the working of the Mind of 
Christ in the realm of business. 

Yes, you pay him so much, and in return 
he does so much work for you. You stand 
together in the relation of employer and 
employ^. That is a right relation. But is 
that all the relation in which you stand ? 
Can it be all, even though you refuse to 
recognize more ? Is he, then, only a cog in 
your wheel, an iron lever by which you lift 
your weights of enterprise, a piston-shaft in 



no Gleams from PaztVs Prison. 

your machinery? Is he not a man, with a 
man's feelings, and, deeper than the mere 
commercial relation of employer and em- 
ploye, are you not his brother ?* There are 
laws of political economy regulating supply 
and demand right and irreversible. But is 
there not in God's universe something beside 
these laws ? Is there not the possibility and 
the ability of a brother's heart cherishing 
within itself something of the Mind of 
Christ ? Need laws of political economy 
shut off sympathy ? Can laws of political 
economy never be the channels for the flow- 
ing of a self-forgetting love ? That young 
man, homeless and homesick in the great 
city, bestormed by temptations — I do not 
say that you should pay him more, but I do 
say that, filled with the Mind of Christ, you 
should love him more. Do you speak to 
him a kindly word ? Do you let him know 
that you are interested in his welfare ? Do 
you help him to stand amid temptation ? 
Do you show him the Christlike heart ? 
Political economy is well enough ; but it is 
not enough. It is the Mind of Christ which 



The Mind of Christ. 1 1 1 

business needs, that the strained relations 
of employer on the one hand, and employed 
on the other, of which the times are full of 
symptoms, may become less tense and 
terrible. 

" Almost up, almost up,*' was the cry of 
the wounded sergeant, as they laid him 
down on the battle-field, and watched ten- 
derly his dying struggles. 

" Where did they hit you, sergeant ? '* 

''Almost up." 

" No, sergeant, but where did the ball 
strike you ? '' 

"Almost up.'* 

" But, sergeant, you do not understand ; 
where were you wounded ? ** 

Turning, back the cloak which had been 
thrown over the wound, he showed the 
upper arm and shoulder, m.ashed and man- 
gled with a shell. Looking at the wound, 
he said : " That is what did it. I was hug- 
ging the standard to my blouse, and making 
for the top. I was almost up when that 
ugly shell knocked me over. If they had let 



112 Gleams from Paul's Prison. 

me alone a little longer, two minutes longer, 
I should have planted the colors on the 
top." 

'^Almost up?" 

" Almost up." 

And as death set its white seal upon his 
face, they heard him saying this only : 
" Almost up, almost up." 

Self was forgotten. The flag held all his 
thoughts. 

This is what we need in church, at home, 
in business, everywhere ; less thought of 
self, more thought of some great cause, 
more thought of others — even the Mind of 
Christ. 



CHAPTER V, 

OUR WORK AND GOD's. 

SEVERAL times I have met the statement 
that when the historian, Henry Thomas 
Buckle, on a visit from England to the East, 
and smitten down in the noon and fullness 
of his prime, lay dying in Damascus, his 
chief plaint was, ^^ My book ! my book ! " 
He had put his life into his ** History of 
Civilization/* He had gone on through two 
volumes of it. Compared with his plan, 
what he had already done was but as the 
foundation to the building. Now death 
had gripped him, and his life-work must 
stand forevermore a fragment. So he died, 
wailing, " My book ! my book ! " 

You will remember that the great picture 

of the Transfiguration, which, in the gallery 

of the Vatican, has held the wondering gaze 

of men for so many generations, is but a 

8 (113) 



114 Gleams from Paul's Prison. 

partial picture as far as Raphael is con- 
cerned. Death caught his hand midway in 
that high enterprise. It is but a fragment, 
after all, which has entranced the world. 

Very pathetic to me those last words of 
Disraeli — dying in his manor house at Bea- 
consfield, so full of years, and at the summit 
of such romantic and surprising achieve- 
ment — " I am overwhelmed.'' Very pathet- 
ic, because they seem to tell of many pur- 
poses with which his brain was busy, whose 
finishing he must now give over seeing. As 
far on even as he had gone in life, he was 
not done with doing. Even for him the 
future was crowded with astute plans. But, 
"I am overwhelmed," he said. Death had 
dashed in like a tide, and drowned but frag- 
ments. 

And, whether death come in youth's 
morning, or at the noon of prime, or wait 
until the shadows of life's evening have 
lengthened way beyond the limit of three- 
score years and ten, it comes as a surprise 
and a devastation. It comes to tread down, 
like wheat beneath the tramp of a tempest, 



Our Work and God's. 115 

many a harvest men had hoped to reap. It 
comes to put the finite stamp of incomplete- 
ness upon our endeavor. 

" How blest we should be, 
We have always believed, 
Had we really achieved 
What we nearly achieved. 
The thought that most thrilled 
Our existence, is one 
That before we could frame it 
In language is gone. 
The more we gaze up into Heaven 
The more do we feel our gaze fail. 
All attempts to explore, 
With earth's finite insight. 
Heaven's infinite gladness, 
So baffled by something. 
Like infinite sadness." 

In many ways does our Elder Brother 
stand out in contrast from His brethren. In 
this most startling contrast among others — ■ 
that He could say, what no one of His 
brethren could ever find it but the most ter- 
rible perversion of the truth to say, that His 
work in this world of ours was a complete 



Ii6 Gleams from Paul's Prison. 

whole — every duty done, every purpose 
actualized, every intended achievement 
crowned, and with a triumph untouched by 
even the suspicion of a disappointment. 
That was a wonderful cry of wonderful vic- 
tory which went floating off from those 
young lips, as He hung there on that cross 
— ^^ It is finished ! '' Here was no fragment. 
To the last jot and tittle the awful errand 
had been gone through with. The Great 
Sacrifice for the sins of the whole world was 
offered, and not the Infinite Eye of Infinite 
Purity could detect in it flaw or failure. So 
perfectly had our Elder Brother wrought 
through the Great Work for His human 
brethren, that for them there was left no 
slightest supplement of expiating service. 

As another says : " We, who have broken 
God*s law and finished nothing, have a new 
and living way made open by His blood. 
When He said, ' It is finished/ His joy was 
not for Himself, merely that His suffering 
was over, but for His people — that the 
poorest, and the most sinful, and the most 
imperfect might now come in all peace to 



Our Work mtd God's. 117 

God — that a door had been opened which 
no man and no demon could shut." * 

So that toward our salvation, in the sense, 
of winning the Redemption Christ has pur- 
chased for us by His finished work, no man 
has any work to do whatever. Any working 
toward this, on man's part, is the sheerest 
impertinence — since how dare a man think 
of in any wise adding to that which in itself 
is already divinely perfect ? A man may not 
try to piece out his own working by Christ's 
work. Christ's work has no room for such 
piecing. It is finished. A man may not 
think that he can half-way, or quarter-way, 
or the hundredth-part-of-an -inch-way save 
himself, and then, when his strength for 
working fails, grasp at the work of Christ, 
and finish out with that, and so be saved a 
good deal by Christ, but at least a little by 
himself. The work of Christ is, to the last 
limit, achieved. " But He, when he had of- 
fered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down 
on the right hand of God.'* f ^^ There re- 



* Life of Jesus Christ, by W. R. Nicoll, M.A., p. 321. 
f Hebrews x. 12, Revised Version. 



Ii8 Gleams from Paul's Prison, 

maineth no more a sacrifice for sins." * It 
is already made. It is perfectly accomplish- 
ed. He who was the victim on the cross- 
altar Has told us, it is finished. 

No. Toward that finished Atonement 
man can stand in but one possible relation 
— never in the relation of working out in 
the least degree an atonement for himself — 
but always and only in the relation of by 
faith accepting a completed atonement 
already outwrought for him. You will re- 
member the answer of Jesus to those Jews 
who came to Him, asking, " What must we 
do, that we may work the works of God ? '* f 
This was His answer : ^^This is the work of 
God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath 
sent." Their duty was not doing. Their 
primal, supreme duty was believing. Their 
outset action was not, by attempting this 
thing and that and that, to seek to win for 
themselves God's favor ; it was to cease all 
such attempt, and by faith to accept to the 
full Him who had come to lift them into 



* Hebrews x. 26, Revised Version. 
f John vi. 28, Revised Version. 



Our Work and God's, iig 

God's favor, to do for them that which, be- 
cause of sin, they themselves could never 
do. 

i\nd what Jesus said to these Jews, He 
says to every child of Adam also — this is the 
work of God, that ye believe on Him whom 
He hath sent. If you want salvation, do 
not begin to work, begin to believe. That 
is your first, chief, overtopping, overmaster- 
ing, undermost, uppermost, including, spe- 
cial, emphatic, critical, saving duty — believ- 
ing, accepting for yourself the finished work 
of Christ. It is not working. Forevermore 
this is the divine method of salvation, as 
Paul tells it to Titus : " Not by works done 
in righteousness, which we did ourselves, 
but through the washing of regeneration 
and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He 
poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ 
our Saviour J that, being justified by His 
grace, we mxight be made heirs according to 
the hope of eternal life." * Dr. Culross tells 
how Jonas Justus, wiping the cold sweat 
from the forehead of the dying Luther, 

* Titus iii. 5, 7, Revised Version. 



I20 Gleams from PauVs Prison, 

heard him praying and committing his soul 
with great confidence into the hands of the 
Heavenly Father, and then, as if he were 
grasping hard after the ground of such cer- 
tain hope, he repeated aloud this passage in 
Latin, as he had learned it when a child: 
" Sic enim Deus delixit mundum, ut Filium 
suum unigenitum daret, ut omnis qui credit 
in earn, non pereat, sed habeat vitam aeter- 
nam."* And you will notice that Luther's 
confidence in that utmost crisis was not in 
what he had done, but in Him whom he 
had believed. And that is the only confi- 
dence sinners can ever have. " For by grace 
have ye been saved through faith ; and that 
not of yourselves : it is the gift of God : not 
of works, that no man should glory." f Not 
by works, but by faith in the finished work 
of Christ, must you and I reach salvation, if 
we reach it at all. That is the Gospel, if 
anything is the Gospel ; that is the Good 
News of God. 



" ** For God so loved the world that He gave His 
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him 
should not perish, but have eternal life." 

t Ephesians ii. 8, 9, Revised Version. 



Our Work and God's, 121 

** Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obey- 
ed, not as in my presence only, but now much more 
in my absence ; work out your own salvation with 
fear, and trembling. For it is God which worketh in 
you, both to will, and to do, of his good pleasure." '^' 

Work out your own salvation. If ever 
there were a distinct statement about work- 
ing, surely this is one. If ever there were a 
distinct command for work, it is here ! 

What shall we say, then ? That Paul de- 
clares one thing at one time and another at 
another ; that Paul antagonizes Paul ? 

By no means. Two considerations will 
relieve us from the seeming difficulty.f 

First. These words concerning our work 
are addressed to Christian people, and to 
such only. They are not words to un-Chris- 
tian people. They are not written to the 
unregenerate at Philippi, but to the saints 
in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with 
the bishops and deacons J — to those who 
have put faith in the finished work of Christ. 



^ Philippians ii. 12, 13. 

f Maclaren's Sermons, first series, pp. 211, 213. 

% Philippians i. I, 2. 



122 Gleams from PaiiVs Prison. 

And speech to Christian people must be 
something different from that to un-Chris- 
tian. The first duty of an un-Christian man 
is to believe, but having believed, and 
having thus become Christian, there follow 
then the duties of the Christian life to which 
he is industriously to give himself. 

Second. The idea covered by the term 
salvation is a very wide one, and that idea 
shines in various though never in opposing 
lights in the New Testament. Sometimes 
salvation represents what I have shown it 
to, in what I have been saying — the eternal 
deliverance from the guilt and condemnation 
of sin. This has been purchased for the 
soul by the finished work of Christ. Toward 
that the soul must stand in the attitude of 
faith, and of faith only. 

But, besides, salvation is looked at in the 
New Testament from another point of view, 
namely, as the internal and gradual process of 
deliverance from the power of sin in our own 
hearts ; as the dethroning of the old Adam 
and the enthroning of the new ; as the in- 
working within ourselves of another and 



Our Work and God's. 123 

Christly temper ; as sanctification distin- 
guished from justification. This, too, is sal- 
vation beheld from the inward side. It is 
not alone the Divine purpose that we be 
just forgiven, and so the hindrance toward 
Heaven of the law which w^e have violated 
be removed ; it is also the Divine purpose 
that we become conformed to the image of 
His Son. And, toward salvation in this 
sense of an internal sanctification, of an 
innermost conforming of character to Christ, 
there is room and place for our owm constant 
and consenting w^orking together with all 
helping and purifying Grace. 

It is with this meaning of salvation our 
present Scripture shines. Tow^ard salvation 
in its sense we are to work. We can not get 
on without working. " Work as w^ell as be- 
lieve, and in the daily practice of faithful 
obedience, in the daily subjugation of your 
ow^n spirits to His Divine power, in the daily 
crucifixion of your own flesh with its affec- 
tions and lusts, in the daily straining after 
loftier heights of godliness and purer atmos- 
pheres of devotion and love — apprehend that 



124 Gleams from Paul's Prison, 

for which you are apprehended of Christ/' * 
How manifestly here wide range and strin- 
gent reason for working. 

I remember how my father took me to 
college when I was a boy. I did not earn 
the money to pay the fare for the long jour- 
ney ; he earned the money and paid the fare, 
and I accepted the journey from him ; I had 
no work whatever concerning that. I did 
not earn the money to buy my books ; he 
earned the money and bought the books ; I 
accepted them from him ; I had no working 
to do wdth that. But when at last we 
reached the college, and my father had en- 
tered me, and put before me room and board 
and teachers and apparatus, and said to me, 
" My son, here is your college, I will support 
you in it ; here is your grand chance of 
education '* — up to that time, as far as work- 
ing was concerned, I had had nothing to do 
w^hatever ; but now, to get into myself the 
education thus, by him, set against my hand, 
to receive into myself what teachers and 
libraries and apparatus and recitations 

* Maclaren's Sermons, first series, p. 213. 



Our Work and God's, 125 

could give me, to make them my own by a 
real appropriation, to transmute what was 
external into something internal, now there 
was room and place for my working as you 
can plainly see. 

Between myself and ignorance my father 
stood with what he had wrought out for me, 
in the way of means, in the way of the prof- 
fer of that college ; as far as working was 
concerned, I had naught to do, I had simply 
to receive all from him. But, standing there 
on the threshold of that college, to make 
actual within myself the education thus 
proffered to me and accepted by me, I must 
take hold with my consenting faculties and 
work. 

Between myself and the guilt and con- 
demnation of my sin Christ stands with His 
finished redemption, and says, " Here, it is 
thine ; by faith take it. With that your 
working has no relation whatsoever." But, 
when it comes to having the high results of 
that redemption wrought out in myself, to 
becoming like the Christ who has so saved 
me, to meeting with an internal sanctifica- 



126 Gleams from PauVs Prison, 

tion that external justification — with this 
my strenuous and joyful and consenting 
working has much to do. 

It is, then, toward this internal salvation 
of sanctification that the Apostle is looking 
when he speaks about our work, when he 
says work out your own salvation with fear 
and trembling. And so it is evident enough 
Paul does not clash with Paul. 

Three things are suggested by our Script- 
ure : 

A Duty. 

A Method. 

An Encouragement. 

First, A Duty. The Duty is that we 
work. Work out your own salvation. 

Let us be at our duty, then, for many 
reasons. 

Because within every one of us there is 
immense work to be done. A little child 
was once asked what it was to be a Chris- 
tian. She replied : " For me to be a Chris- 
tian is to live as Jesus would live, and be- 
have as Jesus would behave, if He were a 



Our Work mtd God's, 127 

little girl and lived at our house." I do not 
knov/ a completer definition of practical re- 
ligion. For you to be a Christian is for 
you to live in your house as Jesus would, 
were He you and in your circumstances. Is 
there not need of constant, careful, subtle, 
painstaking working, that you, even in the 
least measure, approximate such ideal? 
What change ^^ into something rich and 
strange " would come into many a home 
were such high working begun, and even 
measurably carried on ! In what wondrous 
and sweet sense would salvation come to 
that house ! How tangles would untie, and 
icy estrangements thaw, and the green eye 
of jealousies grow blue and beaming with 
soft love, and selfishness, like the snow be- 
fore the sun, fly before the genial warmth of 
sacrifice, and the peace which the world can 
neither give nor take away begin to speak 
its benedictions. But to be religious is to 
be and do as Christ would in your circum- 
stances. You have no license to quit work- 
ing toward such ideal. You can claim no 
immunity from such steady and strong en- 



128 Gleams from PaiiVs Prison. 

deavor. You are passionate^ you say ; but 
still you are to gain Christlike control of 
passion. You are weary, you say ; but still 
it is to be your meat to do the Divine will 
as it was His, though the journey had been 
exhausting, and the noon heats were fierce 
as He sprang to tell of the living water to 
the stained woman of Samaria. You are 
discouraged, you say ; but still you are to 
struggle toward the courage of Him whom 
not even the cross could daunt. You are 
not to be the sport and play of circum- 
stances ; in your sphere you are to seek to 
attain even His grand lordship over circum- 
stance. Mr. Thomas Hughes has said many 
a wise and timely word both to boys and 
men ; but perhaps he has said none wiser 
or timelier than those in which he tells of 
the meaning and the influence of the teach- 
ings of his great instructor, Dr. Thomas 
Arnold. Dr. Arnold " certainly did teach 
us — thank God for it — that we could not 
cut our lives into slices, and say, ^ In this 
slice your actions are indifferent, and you 
needn't trouble your heads about them one 



Our Work and God's. 129 

way or another ; but in this slice mind what 
you are about, for they are important' — a 
pretty muddle we should have been in had he 
done so. He taught us that in this wonder- 
ful world no boy or man can tell which of 
his actions is indifferent and which not ; that 
by a thoughtle-ss word or look we may lead 
astray a brother for v/hom Christ died. He 
taught us that life is a whole, made up of 
actions and thoughts and longings, great 
and small, mean and ignoble ; therefore the 
only true wisdom for boy or man is to bring 
the whole life into obedience to Him whose 
world we live in, and who has purchased us 
with His blood." And that is the only wis- 
dom for boy or man. But to make that 
capture does require tough campaigning. 
And in every one of us there is still large 
territory unconquered for Christ. Because, 
then, there is so much to do, we should set 
ourselves about the doing it — and V/ork. 

Also, I am to take up this duty of Work 
because my earnestness in such working is 
the only possible test that I am a man w^ho 
9 



I3Q Gleams from Pcmrs Prison, 

has been saved by faith, that I am one who 
has accepted the finished redemption out- 
wrought by Jesus Christ. 

For Christ must stand to me — if He stand 
to me in any vital relation whatsoever — not 
in one alone, but always in two relations, 
and in the last by reason of the first. He 
must stand to me, not only in the relation 
of Saviour, whose finished redemption I by 
faith accept ; but, because I believe in Him 
as my Redeemer, I must also come under 
His sovereignty as my Lord. Lord must 
He be to me as well as Saviour. He saves 
me from the guilt and condemnation of my 
old nature that I may serve Him with my 
new nature against the old. The terms on 
which He saves me are the terms of a total 
self-surrender, that I may do His will. And so 
the only genuine test that I have been saved 
by Him is that I joyfully go on in Xh^ prac- 
tice of His will. And the practice of His 
will is w^orking — following Him, taking up 
the cross, refusing to give ear to what is 
base, keeping open ear to what is high. 
Works, then, are the fruit of faith. The 



Our Work and God's, 131 

evidence that I have savingly believed, is 
that I am in strenuous work to do the will 
of Him whom I have savingly believed. 

Also, do this dut}^ of Work because there 
is no one who can do it for you. Work out 
your own salvation. 

When Dr. David Livingstone was a young 
man he stood by the death-bed of David 
Hogg, one of the religious patriarchs of the 
little Scotch village of Blantyre, w^here he 
lived. And the aged Christian's dying ad- 
vice to him was, " Now, lad, make religion 
the every-day business of your life, and not 
a thing of fits and starts ; for if you do, 
temptation and other things will get the 
better of you." * But it was only David 
Livingstone who could do that for David 
Livingstone. And it was because he did it, 
that against the dark background of Africa 
so radiant a specimen of the Christian life 
shines out. Later in his life, Dr. Living- 
stone was obliged to navigate a Government 



■^" Personal Life of David Livingstone," by Dr. W. 
G. Blakie, p. 17. 



132 Gleams from PaiiVs Prison, 

steamer sixteen hundred miles up and down 
the Zambesi River. It was a task of exceed- 
ing difficulty, for the river was unexplored 
and Dr. Livingstone was not an educated 
navigator. '' My great difficulty," he writes 
to a friend, " is calling out ^ starboard * when 
I mean *port,' and feeling crusty when I see 
the helmsman putting the helm the wrong 
way."* But there was nobody who could 
work out for David Livingstone salvation 
from that natural crustiness but David Liv- 
ingstone, assisted by God's good grace. 
Work out your ^^;/.salvation ; and therefore 
set yourself at the working ; there is no one 
else to do it for you. Sekomi v%^as the chief 
of the Bamangwato, a tribe among whom 
Dr. Livingstone was doing missionary serv- 
ice. One day, sitting by him in the hut, 
Sekomi, addressing . the missionary by a 
pompous title, said, " I wish you would 
change my heart. Give me medicine to 
change it, for it is proud, proud and angry, 
angry always." Dr. Livingstone lifted up 

* " Personal Life of David Livingstone," by Dr. W. 
G. Blakie, p. 250. 



Our Work and God's. 133 

the New Testament, and was about to tell 
him of the only way in which the heart can 
be changed, but Sekomi interrupted him, say- 
ing, " Nay, I will have it changed by medi- 
cine to drink, and have it changed at once, 
for it is always very proud and very uneasy 
and continually angry with some one." And 
then he rose and went away.* But this 
longing for some surprising "medicine" is 
not a longing always so distant from even 
Christian hearts. Having received the new 
birth by faith in Christ, when it comes to 
working the new birth out and through the 
whole nature, how do they long for some 
"mxCdicine" of change of place or helping 
circumstance to do it for them ; how do 
they recoil from daily and deadly personal 
grapple with infesting sins. But it \'s> your 
own salvation which you must w^ork out. 
You are the man to do it. Even in unfavor- 
able circumstances you must not let the 
working cease. When Paul was with them, 
streaming them through with his strong in- 

* ** Personal Life of David Livingstone/' by Dr. W. 
G. Blakie, p. 47. 



134 Gleams fro7?i Paters Prison, 

fluence, it was perhaps easier for these Phi- 
lippians to go on working their salvation 
out. But now that he was away from them 
and prisoner, their duty did not cease. Still 
it was their duty, their own duty. " Where- 
fore, my beloved," adjures the Apostle, "as 
3"e have always obeyed, not as in my pres- 
ence only, but now much more in my absence^ 
work out your own salvation. '* 

So much for the Duty, then. This Work- 
ing is a duty, because there is such large 
service to be done, because such working 
toward the salvation of sanctification is the 
only genuine proof that I have by faith re- 
ceived the salvation of redemption, because 
such Working is a duty personal, and can 
not be delegated. 

Second. A Method : Work. In order 
to work you must have instruments. Here, 
then, is lifted before us the value and neces- 
sity of the instruments of working, namely, 
the medns of grace. 

Prayer is such a means* 



1 



Our Work and God's, 135 

** Who goes to bed and doth not pray, 
Maketh two nights of ev'ry day," 

George Herbert sings ; and what he sings 
is true. Spiritual night falls where the sun 
of constant prayer does not arise. As help- 
less as is any seed toward growth is the soul 
defrauding itself of the vigor which comes 
from prayer. " Bene orasse bene studuisse '* 
— to have prayed well is to have studied 
well, Luther used to say. But prayer must 
not sim_ply water the roots of study, but the 
roots of every other activity of the soul as 
well. Prayer bathes the soul in God's sun- 
light. It brings it into contact with His 
help. 

The Bible is such a means. " I read the 
whole Bible through four times whilst I was 
in Manguema," * w^rites David Livingstone 
in his diary. And it was the Bible only 
which could have nurtured such magnificent 
Christian living as he illustrated in those 
dark wilds of Africa. And what he needed 



* ** Personal Life of David Livingstone," by Dr. W. 
G. Blakie, p. 403. 



136 Gleams from PauVs Prison. 

to work out his salvation by, we need as 
surely. The nutriment of the new life is 
truth. We get on so little in our high duty 
of becoming the Christly men and women 
we ought, because, feeding our souls with 
God's truth so slightly, we keep them in 
such famine. 

The public worship of the sanctuary is 
such a means. Who does not need uplift ? 
Who is not conscious of the numbing in- 
fluence of the humdrum daily duty ? Who 
does not feel the necessity for a break in 
the tense attention toward the earthly which 
business compels ? In the prayers and 
praises and instructions of the sanctuary 
there is both rest from such things and 
stimulus for the higher nature. 

The prayer-meeting is such a means. 
" There they that fear the Lord speak often 
one to another ; and the Lord hearkens and 
hears, and a book of remembrance is written 
before him for them who fear the Lord and 
who think upon his name." * 

The Lord's Supper is such a means. At 

* Malachi iii. 16, 



Our Work and God's, 137 

which, in significant symbol, we declare 
that, just as our physical existence hangs 
helplessly upon food and drink, so do our 
souls depend on Him whom broken loaf and 
poured-out wine forthtell ; at which we re- 
new to Him our consecration. 

But, further, as to Method : Using all 
various instruments, we are to work out our 
own salvation with fear and trembling j that 
is to say, not self-confidently, but depend- 
ently. For there are enemies enough ; the 
world, the flesh, the devil, are vigilant and 
persistent. And then, besides, we are to be 
in holy fear and sensitive tremulousness lest 
we offend our Helper. When Ignatius, the 
aged pastor of the church at Antioch, was 
brought before Trajan, the haughty and vic- 
torious, the Emperor called him contempt- 
uously a xaKodaiixoDVy a poor devil. But 
Ignatius caught at the word, and replied 
manfully that one who bore God in him 
could not be called a devil, seeing that 
demons depart .from the servants of God. 
"Who is it," asked Trajan, "who carries 
God with him?'' Ignatius answered, "He 



138 Gleams from Paul 's Prison, 

that hath Christ in his heart/' "Do you 
mean," said Trajan, " Him that was cruci- 
fied?" "Him that hath crucified my sin," 
said Ignatius, "with the inventor of it, and 
put down all demoniac error and wickedness 
under the feet of those who bear Him in 
their heart.'* " Dost thou, then," sneered 
Trajan, " carry the Crucified One within 
thyself ? " " Yea," replied Ignatius ; " for it 
is written, I will dwell in them, and walk in 
them." Thereupon the Emperor pronounced 
sentence: "We ordain that Ignatius, who 
says that he bears the Crucified within him, be 
flung to the beasts for the amusement of the 
people." And so Ignatius came to be called 
Qeocpopo^^ the God-bearer, because he spoke 
of his carrying Christ in him. And while 
Ignatius would not himself have claimed it 
as a title, what he said to the proud Empe- 
ror shows that he did believe the Scripture 
truth, and " that he looked on every Chris- 
tian man as one who bore God within him, 
whether he was mindful of his high and 
awful privilege or not." * " Grieve not the 

* ** The Fall of Man," and other sermons, by Canon 
Farrar, p. 283. 



Our Work and God's, 139 

Holy Spirit of God/'* "Quench not the 
Spirit." f And so with fear and trembling 
lest ye grieve or quench Him, work out your 
salvation. 

Third, An Encouragement — For it is God 
which worketh in you both to will and to 
do for His good pleasure. What encourage- 
ment ! In our struggling workings we are 
not left unhelped. We are immersed in and 
transfused with the Divine assistance. It is 
not a meagre or measured aid of which the 
Apostle speaks. He does not limit the 
Divine operation. " Notice/' as another has 
pointed out, " how his words seem picked 
on purpose to express most emphatically its 
all-pervading energy. Look how his words 
seem picked on purpose to express with the 
utmost possible emphasis that all which a 
good man is and does is its fruit. It is God 
that worketh in you. That expresses more 
than bringing outward means to bear upon 
heart and will. It speaks of an inward, real, 



* Ephesians iv. 30. 
f Thessalonians v. 19. 



I40 Gleams from Paul's Prison. 

and efficacious operation of the Indwelling 
Spirit of all energy on the spirit in which 
He dwells. ^ Worketh in you to will' This 
expresses more than the presentation of 
motives from without : it points to a direct 
action on the will, by which impulses are 
originated within ; God puts in you the first 
faint notions of a better will. ' Worketh in 
you, doing as well as willing.' This points 
to all practical obedience, to all external 
acts, as flowing from His grace in us, no less 
than all inward thoughts and holy de- 
sires." * God's help wraps me round and 
streams me through. 

And now I am not going to mystify my- 
self with difficult distinctions as to just 
where God's working ceases, if it cease at 
all, and mine begins ; as to just how much 
I must work and God will work. I can use 
the encouragement of this great Scripture 
to much better purpose. I can use it prac- 
tically, and let misty theorizing alone. / 
must work — -I am sure of that ; conscious- 
ness as well as Scripture tells me that. But, 

* Maclaren's Sermons, First Series, p. 214. 



Our Work and God's, 141 

like the sunlight falling down upon the seed 
in spring, comes God's benignant, surround- 
ing, interpenetrating, vivifying help ; and 
so I need not work hopelessly, I need not 
work fearing defeat. I work, but God 
works also ; so I must triumph. 

There is a hymn of the Greek patriarch 
Anatolius, set to sweet English music by 
John Mason Neale, which, it seems to me, 
tells, under the figure of the disciples strain- 
ing at the oar on Galilee and of Christ's 
help, the whole truth of our work and God's, 
and of the high courage we may have and 
certainty of victory : 

* Fierce was the wild billow. 

Dark was the night : 
Oars labor'd heavily ; 

Foam glimmer'd white ; 
Mariners trembled ; 

Peril was nigh ; 
Then said the God of gods, 

' Peace ! it is I.' 

** Ridge of the mountain wave, 
Lower thy crest ; 
Wail of Euroclydon, 
Be thou at rest ! 



142 Gleams from PauVs Prison. 

Peril can none be — 
Sorrow must fly — 

Where saith the Light of light, 
* Peace ! it is I.' 

" Jesu, Deliverer ! 

Come Thou to me ; 
Soothe Thoic my voyaging 

Over life's sea ! 
Thou, when the storm of death 

Roars sweeping by, 
Whisper, O Truth of truth ! 

'Peace ! it is I.'" 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE SONS OF GOD. 

THE Apostle gives to these Philippian 
Christians a very exalted title. He 
calls them the Sons, or, as the New Version 
has it, the Children of God."^ 

And yet this is not an unusual title in the 
Scripture. 

Speaking of God's long-suffering, loving 
and at last triumphant grace, the prophet 
Hosea declares — " And it shall come to pass 
that in the place where it was said unto 
them, Ye are not my people, there it shall 
be said unto them. Ye are the Sons of the 

living God." t 

In the first chapter of John's Gospel'we 
are told whose right it is to wear this select 



* Philippians ii. 15. 
f Hosea i. 10. 

(143) 



144 Glemns from PmiVs Prison, 

title, and how they come by it — " But as many 
as received him, to them gave he power or 
right to become the Sons of God, even to 
them that believe on his name "; and then 
their illustrious pedigree is traced — "Which 
were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the 
flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." * 

Also, in the Epistle to the Romans, the 
Apostle gives a characteristic of those who 
dwell in this high realm, a kind of inner 
test by which they may try themselves — 
" For as many as are led by the Spirit of 
God, these are the Sons of God." f 

Then, besides, in Romans, in a strange, 
dim passage, it is hinted that all the lower 
world of the animal creation is in a kind of 
struggle and longing for the flashing forth 
of the real glory of these select and lifted 
ones, that it may gain blessing from such 
sunrise — " For the earnest expectation of 
the' creation waiteth for the revealing of the 
Sons of God. For the creation was subject- 
ed fo vanity, not of its own will, but by 



* John i. 12, 13. 
f Romans viii. 14. 



The Sons of God, 145 

reason of him who subjected it, in hope that 
the creation itself also shall be delivered 
from the bondage of corruption into the lib- 
erty of the glory of the Children of God." * 

Then, again, in one of John's Epistles, 
God's love in the bestowment of such a title 
calls forth the beloved disciple's thankful 
praise — "Behold what m.anner of love the 
Father hath bestowed upon us, that we 
should be called the Sons of God." f 

Still, again, in a succeeding passage of 
the same Epistle, the thought of the Apostle 
runs on to imagine, in some poor, faint way 
at least, the wondrous harvest and issue 
which must lie wrapped in such a wondrous 
seed — " Beloved, now are we the Sons of 
God, and it doth not yet appear what we 
shall be ; but we know that, when He shall 
appear, we shall be like Him ; for we shall 
see Him as He is." J 

Very regal and surprising, then, according 
to the Scripture, in Dignity and Destiny, are 
these Sons of God. 



^- Romans viii. 19, 20, 21, Revised Version. 

\ I John iii. i. \\ John ill. 2. 



146 Gleams from Paul's Prison, 

And, if we ask who these Sons of God may 
be, I think, perhaps, that passage in John's 
Gospel may best tell us ; they are those who 
have received Him, who have believed on the 
name of Jesus ; ^ or, to use for them the 
designation first given to the saints in Anti- 
och, the Sons of God are Christians. The 
man who has joined himself by faith to Jesus 
Christ, who has become in this vital way 
of assent of intellect to Christ and of con- 
sent of heart to Him a Christian — he is a 
Son of God in the peculiar, special, intimate, 
dignified, glorified sense of Scripture. 

But now, among all the passages variously 
describing the Sons of God, I have not yet 
adduced this one in the Philippians. It is a 
very important one, indeed. It gives us a 
vision of the Sons of God from still another 
point of view. The passages already quoted 
tell of the grace and love of God in lifting 
sinful men into such Sonship ; of the path 
of faith along which the soul must tread to 
entei it ; of the inner test of the leading 
Holy Spirit which belongs to it ; of a world 

" John i. 12, 



The Sons of God. 147 

of lower creaturehood longingly waiting for 
the glory which shall flood it when the full 
reward and dignity of such Sonship is man- 
ifested forth ; of the ultimate and radiant 
fruitage of such Sonship, even personal and 
beatific likeness with the Christ himself ; — 
but this passage in the Epistle to the Philip- 
pians throws added and other light on the 
sons of God. It is the great Apostle's out- 
line sketch of what sort of people^ i7i this present 
evil world ^ the Sons of God shoidd be : 

** Do all things without murmurings and disputings ; 
that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of 
God, without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and 
perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in 
the world, holding forth the word of life." * 

This, then, is the kind of people, in this 
present evil world, the Sons of God should 
be — they should be unmurmuring ; they 
should be without disputings ; they should 
be blameless ; they should be harmless ; 
they should be without rebuke in the midst 
of a crooked and perverse nation ; they 



* Philippians ii. 14, 15, 16. 



148 Gleams fro7n Paul's Prison. 

should shine as lights in the world, holding 
forth the word of life. 

Briefly, now, and one by one, let us think 
together of these elements of this inspired 
description of the Sons of God. 

First, the Sons of God should he free from 
Murmurmg; — do all things without murmur- 
ings. 

And this Avord do is a wide and including 
one. It takes in both the active and the 
passive sides of life. There are many things 
in life which we must do actively ; for ex- 
ample, the daily duty, the daily business, 
the daily tasks. There are many things 
also in life which we must do passively, that 
is, we must suffer their doing upon our- 
selves, we must endure them ; for example, 
the thorns in the flesh, the, what seem to us, 
mal-adjustments of Providence, the harass- 
ments and attritions of circumstance which 
we can neither mend nor much alter. Now, 
a Son of God is to do all things, both in the 
sense of actively accomplishing and of pas- 
sively enduring without murmuring. 

Murmuring — in the first Epistle to the 



The Sons of God, 149 

Corinthians, in the tenth chapter and at the 
tenth verse, the Apostle turns us back to the 
old Israelites, that we may get example of 
it : " Neither murmur ye, as some of them 
also murmured, and were destroyed of the 
destroyer." You remember how it was. 
Those old Hebrews were great at murmur- 
ing. On the thither edge of their miracu- 
lous deliverance the Egyptians pursue them 
—and they murmur. They come to a fount- 
ain ; the water is bitter — and they murmur. 
Again, there is no water — and they murmur. 
Then there is no flesh with their bread — and 
they murmur. Then, when the quails have 
come and the bread is gone and the won- 
derful manna takes its place, there is noth- 
ing at all besides this manna before our 
eyes, they say — and they murmur. Moses 
tarries in the mount — and they murmur. 
Moses takes too much upon him — and they 
murmur. The way is long — and they mur- 
mur. They are at the borders of Canaan, 
the spies report the inhabitants giants and 
their towns walled ; * but instead of trust- 

* " Moses, the Man of God," by James Hamilton, 
D.D., p. 223. 



150 Gleams from PatiVs Prison, 

ing God a little, and attempting at least 
somewhat in His name, they refuse to at- 
tempt anything at all— -and murmur. A 
crowd of grumblers — that is what they were. 
The splendid light of the Divine presence 
they used but to get sight of things at which 
they could carp and criticise. 

Murmuring — let us define it. It means 
literally to mutter, to growl, to grumble. 
And so it gets to mean to utter complaints 
in a low, half-articulate voice. And then it 
passes over into the common moral mean- 
ing which we give it — the utterance of a 
willful, sullen discontent. As another has 
thoughtfully said, murmuring is a kind of 
moral rebellion against God. 

Murmuring — let us be honest with our- 
selves, and confess that we have been learn- 
ers too sadly apt in the bad school in which 
these old Israelites are teachers. And let us 
remember, too, that as with them, so with 
ourselves, murmuring is apt to break out 
more at smaller and special matters than at 
the larger and overarching. I suppose those 
old Israelites w^ere, in a general way, really 



' The Sons of God. 151- 

very thankful and praiseful for their great de- 
liverance — but it was at the little and passing 
things, the bitterness of March, the failure of 
water just then and there, the monotonous- 
ness of the manna, the apparently needlessly 
long tarrying of Moses in the mount that 
their murmurings broke- out. This is the 
case, too, with our murmurings. There is 
many a man who is really very thankful for 
his home — who really loves his wife de- 
votedly, who would willingly put himself to 
much trouble and sacrifice on her account, 
who yet clips the wings of her spirits and 
shadows constantly the home sunshine by 
continual complaints at the little things 
which will sometimes get at sixes and 
sevens in the best - regulated household. 
There is many a man greatly thankful at 
his general prosperity who yet thinks he 
has a perfect right to grumble at the wash- 
ing-day dinner — as Dr. James Hamilton has 
put it — under one cover nothing but manna 
and under the other only quails.* There 

"^ *' Moses, the Man of God," by James Hamilton, 
D.D., p. 224. 



152 Gleams from Paul's Prison, 

are many parents who bear most generous 
and fervid love toward their children, who 
are yet so constant in their murmurs at 
childish spirits and childish noises and 
childish fun and childish carelessness, that 
the home becomes a kind of prison, and the 
child loves the street better. There is many 
a church-member who is really very thank- 
ful to God for his place in Christ's Church, 
who values it highly, who shows his love by 
constant and steady and difficult service, 
who yet, because he does not get his special 
plan, or get it by his special method, or be- 
cause others do not do precisely as he thinks 
they ought, or because others in this or that 
little particular think he does not do just as 
he ought — changes, at least a little, the 
music of brotherhood into the discords of 
complaints. 

Murmurers too much are most of us — if 
not generally rebellious, if on the whole 
thankful and submissive, yet still, in this and 
that, and that minuter and particular thing, 
where the harness hurts, where the burden 
presses, where the pin-prick pains, are we 



A^ 



The Sons of God, 153- 

apt to growl and grumble and mutter, are 
we apt to murmur. 

But now, in Paul's sketch here of what a 
Son of God should be, this is the first thing 
he tells us about him— -a Son of God should 
not murmur. Let the Son of God do all 
things without murmurings, he said. In 
this growling rebellion toward the appoint- 
ments of his Heavenly Father, even though 
it be about the slighter things, the Son of God 
may not allow himself. That is the trouble 
— Vv^e do not think enough of murmuring as 
a. sin. We call it a peccadillo, or an infe- 
licity of disposition, or a kind of pardonable 
outlet for the devil in us. We are apt to 
think that, because we do not break the 
commandments as a whole, we have a per- 
fect right to knock the edges off here and 
there by little grunts of murmuring. But, 
according to the Scripture, murmuring is a 
sin. It is sinfully unbecoming a Son of 
God. If my boy is generally obedient, and 
then pouts and flouts because I want him to 
do some little thing, or because, for wise 
reasons, I say he must endure some little 



154 G learns from PaaVs Prison. 

thing, the general obedience does not ex- 
cuse the special disobedience. Since he is 
my son, and I try to be the best father to 
him I know how, he ought not to mutter 
and refuse at that slighter thing. And since 
I, by faith in Christ, have become a Son of 
God, since He by His grace has lifted 
me into this grand dignity and destiny of 
Sonship, and since He, not tries to be, but 
is the best possible Father, appointing 
wisely and arranging lovingly minuter 
things as well as larger — then even at these 
minuter things I have no right to be growl- 
ingly rebellious. Murmuring is sinfully un- 
becoming a Son of God. 

Second. A Son of God is to do all things 
without disputings. These disputings do not 
refer so much to wranglings among breth- 
ren, as to doubtful, wavering, inward, intel- 
lectual questionings toward God. Dr. Light- 
foot, whose commentary is perhaps the 
authority on Philippians, says as murmur- 
ing is the moral, so disputing is the intel- 
lectual rebellion against God.* Thus inter- 

* Lightfoot on Philippians, in loco. 



The Sons of God, 155 

preted, this word disputing yields a most 
beautiful and consistent meaning. A Son 
of God may not have inward questionings 
about his Heavenly Father. He is not to 
doubt Him. He is a man who is to walk 
by faith in Him. 

I read once about a ship-captain who was 
out for three long nights in a continued 
storm. He was close by the harbor, yet of 
himself he could not venture to go in, and 
the sea was so rough the pilot could not 
come aboard. He dare trust nobody but 
himself. He stood nobly at the helm. En- 
durance almost gave way, but he stood 
there. Imagine his disputings, his inward 
questionings with himself — how near he 
might be to the rocks mist-covered, to what 
limit he might run on this tack or that, 
whether this were the best thing to do or 
that, or that. Worn with anxiety, worn with 
toil, worn with care for crew and cargo, 
almost at the point of giving up and taking 
the chances of letting the vessel drift to 
safety or to wreck^ — at length, over the 
rough sea and through the mist he saw the 



156 Gleams from Paul's Prison, 

pilot coming. Climbing the deck, almost 
without a word the pilot went to the helm 
and took it. Then immediately for that 
captain disputings, inward questionings, all 
the anxious wrench and strain ceased utter- 
ly. The pilot was at the helm. The pilot 
knew ; the pilot was responsible. The cap- 
tain, leaving matters in his hand, and with 
heart at rest, went below for food and sleep. 
Now, a Son of God has put himself over 
into the guidance and guarding of the 
Heavenly Father. He has resigned the 
helm of his destiny into His hands. God is 
his pilot. So a Son of God is not to have 
disputings — waverings, wondering, anxious 
inward questionings. He is to rest in God. 
He is to be quiet in Him. He is to be 
strong and constant in courage in Him. 
The best cure for murmurings, you see, is to 
be without disputings in this meaning. 

Third. A Son of God should be blameless. 
But this does not mean, in any sense, that 
he is to be a pallid, soft, negative, interroga- 
tion-point kind of character ; a man who 



The Sons of God. 157 

amounts to so little, that to know where he 
is or what he does is hardly worth asking 
about. To be a Son of God is not to w^ant 
back-bone, it is to have back-bone. A Son 
of God is to be blameless in this strong and 
noble sense, that he is to so carry himself, 
in such grand accord with his profession as 
a Son of God, that not the most critical 
worldling can, for any just reason, find fault 
with him ; can, for any real cause, say he 
does not act like a Son of God. 

As to be unmurmuring and without dis- 
puting has reference to his attitude God- 
ward, so this enjoined blamelessness has 
reference to his attitude manward. 

Scotch Dean Ramsay tells a story of a 
little boy who was told of heaven and of the 
meeting of the departed there. "And will 
faather be there ? " the little fellow asked. 
On being told that of course he would be 
there, the child at once broke out, " Then 
I'll no gang." By no means a blameless Son 
of God could have been that orthodox 
Scotch Christian to have made such illus- 
tration of religion in the vision of his child. 



158 Gleams from PaicVs Prison. 

Think how careful Paul was to be blame- 
less. You remember that he was often 
much occupied in gathering and conveying 
contributions from the richer Gentile 
churches for the help of the poor saints at 
Jerusalem. Dean Howson has called special 
attention to the exquisite scrupulousness of 
the Apostle in these matters. " Commis- 
sioners were chosen by the churches thefn- 
selves to take charge of the contributions. 

* When I come/ he writes to the Corinthians, 

* whomsoever j/^ shall approve, them will I 
send with letters to carry yotir charitable 
gift to Jerusalem ; and if it be thought 
right, they shall go with me.' * And what was 
done at Corinth was done elsewhere. In 
the second Epistle he mentions one who 
was expressly associated with Titus in this 
office, and 'chosen by the churches in regard 
to this charitable gift then in process of 
ministration.' f Nor was all this cautious 
and delicate management unnecessary ; for 
it seems that both he and Titus had been 



* I Corinthians xvi. 3, 4. 
f 2 Corinthians viii. 19. 



i 



The Sons of God, 159 

exposed to the vulgar charge of seeking 
their own profit in this charitable work.^ So 
that there was very good reason, as there 
always is in such transactions, for shunning 
even the semblance of interested motives. 
We should observe Paul's own statement : 
^ Carefully avoiding, lest any man should 
blame us in dealing with so large a sum '; f 
and the Apostle strengthens this by a quota- 
tion which he twice makes from the Book of 
Proverbs : ' Providing things honest, in the 
sight, not only of the Lord, but of men'; J 
in other words, ^exercising' himself to main- 
tain a * conscience,' not only in great things, 
but in small things — not only in fact, but in 
appearance — ^void of offence toward God 
and toward men.' § " 1| 

Will you specially notice that when the 
Apostle found himself subjected to this 
mean and miserable charge of winning a 



"^ 2 Corinthians xii. i8. f 2 Corinthians viii. 20. 

% Proverbs iii. 4. See Romans xii. 17. 
§ Acts xxiv. 16. 

II *'The Character of St. Paul," by Dean Howson, 
pp. 164, 166. 



i6o Gleams front Paul's Prison, 

personal advantage, making a good thing 
for himself out of this collection for the 
poor saints, he did not get angry, and de- 
clare he would wash his hands of the whole 
matter and resign, and let the poor saints 
in Jerusalem suffer because evil-minded and 
censorious persons went about saying such 
unfounded and unjust things about him ? 
That would have been the natural thing to 
do, but that was not the Christian thing. 
No ; Paul would do the beautiful, Christly 
duty, and, in addition, he would anxiously 
see to it that even the mouths of such scan- 
dal-making persons should be stopped by 
his careful conduct. He would keep on 
doing beneficently as a Christian ought, and 
in the doing it he would be blameless and 
be seen to be. 

Many times people say, " I don't care 
what others think about me or say about 
me ; I am utterly indifferent ; let their 
tongues wag." But so a Son of God may 
not say. First of all, a Son of God is to be 
solicitously scrupulous that there be really 
nothing in his conduct which may give just 



The Sons of God, i6i 

occasion for criticising speech ; and next, 
he is to seek, by all right means of thought- 
ful care, to baffle and beat down what may 
be of bad report by good report.. He is to 
be blameless. 

Fourth. A Son of God should be hannless. 
As to be unmurmuring and without disput- 
ings tells of the right attitude of a Son of 
God upward and toward God, and as to be 
blameless tells of the right attitude of a Son 
of God outward and toward men, so this 
designation harmless tells of the right atti- 
tude of a Son of God inward and toward 
himself. This word harmless means, liter- 
ally, unmixed, unadulterated, and so it 
comes to mean pure, sincere. It is the word 
used in Greek literature of pure wine, of 
unalloyed metal. The Son of God in him- 
self should be sincere and honest and with- 
out pretense. The New Version brings the 
meaning nobly out in its translation of a 
portion of the Sermon on the Mount. _ The 
old version reads, "Take heed that ye do 
not your alms before men to be seen of 



1 62 Gleams from Paul's Prison, 

them, otherwise ye have no reward of your 
Father which is in heaven." The new 
translates, " Take heed that ye do not your 
righteousness before men'*; and then it goes 
on to specify the sorts of righteousness 
which are to be done sincerely, as for the 
Father's eye, and not insincerely, for the 
eves of men — the rio:hteousness of alms, the 
righteousness of prayer, the righteousness 
of fasting. A Son of God is to be a man of 
the purest inward motive. He is not to do 
his righteousness that men may praise him 
for it, but because it is right to do it, and 
as in the vision of the Supreme. A Son of 
God IS not to be gilding — to his heart's core 
he is to be gold. He is to be harmless — that 
is to say, he is to be unmixed sincere. 

Fifth. A Son of God is to be greater than 
his circumstances — without rebuke in the 
midst of a crooked and perverse generation. 
That is to say, even thoitgh he is in the midst 
of a crooked and perverse generation he is 
to be without rebuke. He is not to share 
the crookedness and perverseness. He is 



The Sons of God. 163 

not to say, being in Rome, I must do as 
the Romans do. Rather everywhere, as far 
as character is concerned, he is to be might- 
ier than his circumstances ; he is to be and 
he is to act like a Son of God. Said Luther 
to Erasmus, " You desire to walk on eggs 
without crushing them, and among glasses 
without breaking them." Answered the 
trimming, timorous Erasmus to Luther, '^ I 
will not be unfaithful to the cause of Christ, 
at least so fa?" as the age will per??nt me,'' Of 
such sort is no speech for a Son of God — the 
utterance of a craven thrall of his time and 
circumstance. " I treasure," says one, " a 
small drawing by Millais. It is the figure 
of a woman bound fast to a pillar far within 
tide-mark. The sea is curling its waves 
about her feet, A ship is passing in full 
sail, but not heeding her or her doom. Birds 
of prey are hovering about her ; but she 
heeds not the birds or the ship or the sea. 
Her eyes look right on and her feet stand 
firm, and you see that she is looking directly 
into heaven, and telling her soul how the 
sufferings of this present time are not worthy 



164 Gleams from Paul's Prison, 

to be compared with the glory that shall be 
revealed. Under the picture is this legend, 
copied from the stone set up to her memory 
in an old Scottish kirkyard : 

** ' Murdered for owning Christ supreme 
Head of His Church, and no more crime. 
But for not owning Prelacy, 
And not abjuring Presbyt'ry, 
Within the sea, tied to a stake, 
She suffered for Christ Jesus' sake.* " * 

This is the right method for a Son of God 
— amid the rising waves and notwithstand- 
ing them, true to the truth, and so master 
of the waves though they overwhelm. 

Sixth. A Son of God should be like a 
lu7ninary streaming heaven's radiance into the 
world's darkness ; — among whom ye shine, or 
are seen, as lights in the world holding forth 
the Word of Life. As hands do torches or as 
beacons fling forth their light to point out 
harbor to storm-tossed sailors, a Son of God 
is to shine and to hold forth his shining. 

* See Macaulay's thrilling description of the scene . 
History of England, vol. ii., p. 89. 



The Sons of God, 165 

You remember the familiar story : 

A traveler once visiting the lighthouse at 
Calais, said to the keeper, " But what if one 
of your lights should go out at night ? " 
" Never — impossible ! " he cried. " Sir, yon- 
der are ships sailing to all parts of the 
world. If to-night one of my burners were 
out, in six months I should hear from Amer- 
ica, or India, saying that on such a night 
the lights at Calais lighthouse gave no 
warning, and some vessel had been wrecked. 
Ah, sir, sometimes I feel, when I look upon 
my lights, as if the eyes of the whole world 
were fixed upon me. Go out ! burn dim ! 
Never ! impossible ! '' That is close to our 
Scripture. 

On the Eddystone lighthouse is this in- 
scription : " To give light and to save life *' 
— this is close to our Scripture. A Son of 
God is to shine, and by shining hold forth 
the Word of Life — the Word which saves. 

He is to shine by constantly keeping him- 
self in contact with the light-giving agency. 
His light is derived always. " Our lamps 
are going out,'* said the foolish virgins in 



1 66 Gleams from PauVs Prison, 

the parable, and the lights were flickering 
down because the oil was wanting. A Son 
of God can be a luminary only as he steadily 
receives from Christ the oil of His grace 
and help. A prayerless Christian can not 
shine — he has no oil. A Bible-neglecting 
Christian can not shine — he has no oil. A 
means-of-grace-neglecting Christian can not 
shine — he has no oil. It is only as a Son of 
God receives that he can shine. He has no 
light inherent ; he can but ray forth light 
imparted. 

In his Business he is to shine ; the radi- 
ance is to flash along his bargains and his 
ledgers. 

In his Home he is to shine ; in the mild 
lustre of a Christian character all the home 
inmates are to rejoice, all the home inmates 
— the lustre is not to be kept simply for the 
parlor, it is even to stream into the kitchen. 

In his Friendships he is to shine ; in other 
days I used to meet so shining a saint that 
simply to have heard " Good - morning '' 
from him was like the breaking of a sun- 
beam into a cloudy day. 



The Sons of God, 167 

In his Church he is to shine ; he may not 
be gloomy with complaint, and harsh as an 
east wind with criticism, and when he is 
wanted for a duty pettishly refusing, leaving, 
where he should be, but a dark emptiness ; 
but like a day in June he should seek to be, 
a day into which the clouds come not, ten- 
der with a genial sunshine, in whose pres- 
ence the most timid flowers find courage to 
put out the colors of their petals and scatter 
their best fragrance forth. 

So shining, others must say of such a Son 
of God, as even the proud Sanhedrim were 
compelled to say of those Sons of God of 
the early time, " He has been with Jesus and 
learned of Him"; and to make men think 
of Jesus is to hold forth the word of life. 

Such, then, is PauVs sketch of what a Son 
of God should be in this present evil world. 

As you look at it, learn this single lesson 
— to be a Christian, a Son of God is net 
simply to have had an experience, shriveled 
now and faded, and laid away in the drawers 
of the memory ; to be a Son of God is not 
simply to have been, it is to be ; it is to have 



1 68 Gleams from PaiiVs Prison. 

a present life blooming out of an experience ; 
it is to live unmurmuringly, trustfully, 
blamelessly, sincerely, without rebuke even 
amid difficult and tempting circumstance, 
shiningly holding forth the Word of Life. 



CHAPTER VII. 

TIMOTHY. 

THE Apostle has just been sketching 
what sort of people the Sons of God 
should be in this present evil world. Imme- 
diately now he brings an argument and a 
reason why these Philippian Christians 
should be steadily intent on themselves be- 
coming such Sons of God. The reason is 
that their failure to be such would be, in a 
sense, his own disappointment and defeat. 
" Be such Sons of God," he says, "that I may 
have to glory in the day of Christ, that I 
did not run in vain, neither labor in vain."* 
It is as if he had said : " Into you, O Philip- 
pians, I have put my prayers, my work, my 
life ; through my effort, by God's good 
grace, you have been rescued from heathen- 
ism and translated into the kingdom of His 

* Philipplans ii. i6, Revised Version. 

(169) 



I JO Gleams from Paul 's Prison. 

dear Son ; now be worthy of that, kingdom, 
that in Christ's day of adjudication I may 
be full of joy because of you, and it may be 
seen that my work for you and in you has 
not been naught." 

There is no pain so bitter as that which 
thrusts its pangs through a minister when 
those for whom he has wrought, to whom 
he has given the best service he knew, falter 
and fail and stain the ermine of their high 
profession. Nor is there any joy so sweet 
as that which wells up in the heart of a min- 
ister when he sees those whom he has 
brought to Christ, and over whom he has 
been given care, constant to their Lord as 
is the needle to the pole. It is a great thing 
to look upon a growing and beautiful Chris- 
tian character, with whose beginnings and 
nurture you, under God's blessing, have had 
something to do, and be able to say : " See ! 
there is one result of my toil, anyway ; I 
have not lived uselessly ; I have not run in 
vain, neither labored in vain." 

And then, as the Apostle, longing by his 
personal presence to edify and help these 



Timothy, 171 

loved Philippians, reverts to his present im- 
prisoned and hindered plight, anti thinks 
how it is quite possible that, notwithstand- 
ing his hopes otherwise, his captivity may 
end in martyrdom — he bursts forth : " Yea, 
and if I am poured out as a drink-offering 
upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, 
I joy, and rejoice with you all ; and in the 
same manner do ye joy, and rejoice with 
me '** — yea, if I be destined to martyrdom, 
if it shall so turn out, in God's ordering, 
that my death shall be better for you than 
my life, I will rejoice in death ; and since 
dying I shall best serve you, I bid you 
rejoice also in my dying. His whole heart 
and soui are theirs, whether it be for life or 
death. 

Then, further, as the Apostle, held here a 
prisoner, hampered and prevented, is yet 
yearning to do his utmost for those to whom 
his heart so cleaves, and is trying to find 
something he can do for them, he bethinks 
himself that there is one thing left for him, 

■^ Philippians ii. 17, 18, Revised Version, marginal 
reading. 



172 Gleams fi^oin Paul's Prison. 

and possible. Here is Timothy, his own 
son in the Gospel, his companion in labor, 
the delight of his heart, the stay of his age 
— he can send him to these Philippians to 
do for them the personal ministry from 
which he is himself thwarted. Just as soon 
as he shall get a little more light on what is 
coming to him out of this imprisonment, 
just as soon as Timothy can be in any wise 
spared, he will send them him. And so he 
writes, " But I trust in the Lord Jesus to 
send Timotheus shortly unto you." * 

This mention of Timothy brings at once 
to our notice one of the most prominent and 
beautiful and inspiring characters of the 
New Testament. Let us study the lovely 
life, and gather some of the lessons with 
which it is wealthy. Biography is always 
valuable ; most of all, Scnptural biography. 
For, after all, nothing can help life like life. 
The Arabian proverb says, " A fig-tree look- 
ing on a fig-tree becometh fruitful." 



^ Philippians ii. 19. 



Timothy. 173 

On Paul's first evangelizing journey, you 
will remember, when, together with Barna- 
bas, set apart to missionary duty by the 
church at Antioch, the two went forth upon 
it ;* passing through the island of Cyprus, 
and thence reaching Perga in Pamphylia, 
and thence Antioch in Pisidia, and thence 
Iconium, they came to Lystra.* You will 
remember that Lystra was the scene of the 
healing of the man impotent in his feet, a 
cripple from his mother's womb. On his 
healing, the people exclaimed that, in the 
persons of the two strangers, the gods 
Jupiter and Mercury had come down to 
them, and were proceeding to pay them 
divine honors, which Paul with difficulty 
prevented.! The presence of Paul and Bar- 
nabas made much religious stir in that city ; 
a number of disciples were gathered. Then, 
you will remember, that, moved by certain 
Jews from Antioch and Iconium, the temper 
of these Lystrians changed, and they set on 
Paul with stones, and dragged him out of 



* Acts xiii, 1, 3. f Acts, chapters xiii. and xiv. 



174 Gleams from PaitVs Prison, 

the city, and left him lying there dead, as 
they supposed. But he was not dead. As 
the converts watched around him, he recov- 
ered consciousness, and went back into the 
city, and getting rest and receiving refresh- 
ment from those who had believed, went on 
next day to Derbe.* 

Though there is no direct mention of it, 
yet, putting everything together,f it is most 
probable that on this first missionary jour- 
ney, and here in this place of cruel stoning, 
Paul first met Timothy, and was himself the 
means of his conversion. J 

Sometimes amid our worst trials God 
gives us our best blessings. Here in this stony 
Lystra sprung up for Paul the beautful and 
refreshing fountain of Timothy. In more 
ways than one is that ancient Scripture true? 
" For in the wilderness shall waters break 
out, and streams in the desert." § 

At the time of his conversion Timothy was 



* Acts xiv. 8, 20. f See 2 Timothy iii. 11. 

X Paul calls him his own son in the faith (i Timothy 
i. 2). 

§ Isaiah xxxv. 6, 



Timothy, 175 

a youth, probably in the neighborhood of 
fifteen years of age.* 

Well, some seven years f have sped away, 
and Paul is again at Lystra. He is now 
upon his second ^r^dX evangelizing journey. 

Attend a little to what has been taking 
place meantime. From his first journey 
Paul has returned to Antioch, and given to 
the church there account of the Lord's 
doings through himself and Barnabas. Tar- 
rying at Antioch a good while, and plying 
here his ministry, there breaks out all that 
discussion about the relation of the Mosaic 
ritual to the new Covenant : w^hether now 
in the new Covenant that ancient ritual is 
to be dispensed with, or whether a man 
must not only believe in Christ, but also be 
circumcised *and observe the other Jewish 
rites in order to be saved. You know very 
well the side which Paul always took upon 



* Farrar's '* Life of St, Paul," vol. i., p. 386; also 
Lewin's *' Life of St. Paul," vol. i., p 166, vol. ii., p. 

349- 

t Dr. William Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, arti- 
cle Timothy. 



I ^6 Gleams from Paul 's Prison, 

this question — the great dividing question 
for the early Church. The discussion cul- 
minates in the Council at Jerusalem, which 
Paul attends, and at which it is decided that 
Christ alone is Saviour, that ancient rites are 
no longer binding, that there are only these 
necessary things pertaining to the new life 
in Christ — that converts abstain from meats 
offered to idols, from blood, from things 
strangled, from fornication. Paul then re- 
turns again to Antioch, bearing, together 
with messengers from Jerusalem, the decree 
of the Council to the church at Antioch. 

Then, after a time, Paul proposes to Bar- 
nabas to go upon this second missionary 
tour, visiting again the churches founded in 
the first. Barnabas agrees ; but at once 
there is a split and quarrel on the question 
as to whom they shall take with them. You 
see, there were such things as very heated 
disagreements even in the early and Apostolic 
Church. They were not perfect people ; 
they were, as we are, imperfect people 
struggling toward perfection. Mark had 
gone with Paul and Barnabas on the first 



Timothy, lyy 

journey, and Barnabas wanted to take him 
the second time. But Paul remembered 
that on that first journey Mark had gotten 
frightened and turned coward and gone 
home. He would not consent to Mark's 
company again. So Barnabas and Paul 
separate : Barnabas taking Mark and going 
one way, and Paul taking Silas and going 
another. And thus it was that, prosecuting 
this second missionary journey, and after 
seven years have sped away, Paul, in com- 
pany now with Silas, comes again to Lys- 
tra.* ^ ^ 

In the account of this second evangelizing 
tour the first direct mention is made of 
Timothy. We are told several things about 
him. We are told of his mother,f that she 
was by race a Jewess, but had become a 
Christian. In Paul's second letter to Tim- 
othy we are given her name, it was Eunice. J 
We are there also told of Timothy's grand- 
mother, that her name was Lois, and that 
she also was a Christian. § Timothy's father 

* See Acts, chapters xiv. and xv. 

f Acts xvi. I. :[: 2 Timothy i. 5. § Ditto. 



1/8 Gleams front Po^lVs Prison. 

is mentioned, too, in the sixteenth chapter 
of the Acts, where he himself comes first 
directly into view. Ail we know of him is 
that he was a Greek, the strong intimation 
seeming to be that he was not a believer in 
the Lord Jesus.* Of Timothy himself we 
are told that he was already a disciple — the 
probability being, as I have just been say- 
ing, that he became a Christian through 
PauFs labors on his first visit to this town 
of Lystra seven years before. We are also 
told of Timothy, that his Christian charac- 
ter was of the highest repute, not only 
among the brethren who lived at Lystra, 
but that the sweet savor of his name had 
extended as far as to Iconium.f 

There was something in this young man 
which evidently drew to him in a marked 
manner the Apostle's heart. He seemed to 
the Apostle to be just the one he needed as 
a companion and assistant. Him, we are 
told, would Paul have to go forth with him. J 
•At the close of one of his addresses as Pres- 



* Acts xvi. I. t Acts xvi. 2. % Acts xvi. 3. 



Thnothy. 179 

ident of the American Baptist Missionary 
Union, Dr. Boardman, of Philadelphia, tells 
us how, when his father, the missionary 
Boardman — and whose early death amid his 
Christian triumphs among the Karens is one 
of the most romantic and stirring incidents 
in missionary annals — made known to his 
father his purpose to give himself to the 
distant and difficult missionary service, that 
his father answ^ered, amid his tears, that 
God could confer no higher honor upon 
himself than to consecrate a son of his to 
such a noble duty. Isuppose it must have 
been in some such way that Timothy's 
mother must have felt and spoken when the 
call came for her son Timothy to go forth 
upon such hazardous and laborious pilgrim- 
age with the Apostle Paul. With tears she 
bade him good-bye surely, and at the same 
time with a joyful, holy thankfulness that 
her boy was lifted to such stately place and. 
service. 

Since Timothy's father was a Greek, al- 
though his mother was a Jewess, and doubt- 
less owing to his Gentile father's wishes and 



1 80 Gleams from Paul 's Prison, 

prejudice, Timothy had never been caused 
to submit to the Jewish rite of circumcision. 
But Paul immediately saw to it that this 
Jewish rite was performed on Timothy.* 

Yet, concerning Titus, we are told that 
this same Apostle would not allow him for 
any consideration to be circumcised.f The 
reason for this difference is most instructive. 
Regarding Titus, the matter assumed the 
shape of 2l principle. It was around Titus 
that the battle was just then waging between 
these, of whom Paul was one, who said that 
Christ was the alone Saviour, and that Jewish 
and ritualistic party who would keep on de- 
claring Christ was Saviour/r<?z//^^^ those who 
believed on Him submitted themselves to 
Mosaic ceremonies. Here, in the case of 
Titus, a principle was at stake, and Paul 
would not yield a hair*s breadth. But re- 
garding Timothy, this matter of circum- 
cision took the form simply of an expediency. 
No discussion was waked up about the 
thing. And Timothy was going with Paul on 



* Acts xvi. 3. t Galatians ii. 3. 






Timothy. ■ i8i 

a tour of evangelization. Week after week 
he would be entering Jewish synagogues to 
proclaim that in the despised Jesus of Naza- 
reth all the Jewish Messianic hopes and 
prayers had been fulfilled and answered. 
In a Jew's eyes there was no disgrace so 
disgraceful as that a man with Jewish blood 
in him should be uncircumcised. If Timo- 
thy were to seek to talk to Jews thus they 
would not listen to him ; all their prejudices 
would be alert against him. It was, there- 
fore, most expedient that Timothy should 
be circumcised. So, then, when it was a 
simple question of expediency^ Paul yielded ; 
where it was a question of principle^ Paul 
stood firm as the mountains about Jerusa- 
lem. It is a very essential part of the wise 
philosophy of life to distinguish thus be- 
tween a matter of principle and a matter of 
expediency. To be obstinate concerning 
principle is to be right and heroic. To be 
obstinate concerning expediency is to be 
ridiculous and narrow and wrong-headed, 
and is likeliest to defeat the very end you 
have in view. 



1 82 Gleams from PaicVs Prison, 

So, set apart and ordained to his great 
duty by the church at Lystra anji, by the 
Apostle himself,* Timothy, now a young 
man of twenty-two or twenty-three, or 
thereabouts, goes forth with the Apostle. 

Thenceforward the lives of Paul and Tim- 
othy are intertwined. Timothy is toward 
Paul his most loved and trusted companion, 
sympathizer, helper, messenger, consoler. 

It is not needful to trace further Timothy 
and Paul along their winding ways of evan- 
gelizing journeying. 

When there is any special and delicate 
duty to be done, as, for example, at Corinth, 
to bring the churches into the remembrance 
of the waysf of the Apostle, Timothy is the 
one sent oftenest to do it. When the Apos- 
tle must hasten on, and the believers gath- 
ered in some city, as at Berea, need further 
edification and organization amidst embit- 
tered foes, it is to Timothy the duty is 
chiefly delegated. J When, as at Corinth, 



* I Timothy iv. 14 ; 2 Timothy i. 6, iv. 5. 

t I Corinthians iv. 17. % Acts xvii. ro, ix, 



Timothy, 183 

there is a long period of settled labor, Tim- 
othy is the Apostle's trusted helper.* When, 
as among the Thessalonians, the hearts of 
believers are sinking amid manifold tribula- 
tions, it is Timothy who is sent to establish 
them and to comfort them concerning their 
faith. f When the Apostle writes letters to 
the various churches, it is Timothy whose 
name the Apostle oftenest associates with 
his own. When the Apostle, as we now find 
him, is a prisoner at Rome, though we have 
no record of Timothy's presence with him 
during the long journey thither — -probably 
he could not travel with him as a prisoner — 
, it is Timothy who comes at once to Rome 
to identify himself with the Apostle, to be 
his rejoicing support and stay. J And it is 
of this true and steadfast friend Timothy, 
here with him at Rome, that the Apostle 
writes to these Philippian Christians his 
grand commendation : 

'* But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus 
shortly unto you, that I also may be of ^ood comfort 



■^' Acts xviii. 5. f I Thessalonians iii. 2, 3. 

X Colossians i. i ; Philemon i. 



184 Gleams from PatiVs Prison, 

when I know your state. For I have no man like- 
minded who will naturally care for your state. For all 
seek their own, not the things which are Jesus 
Christ's." But Timothy still was true. "But ye 
know" — the Apostle appeals to their knowledge of 
Timothy when he was with him and therti at Philippi 
— "but ye know the proof of him, that, as a son with 
the father, he hath served with me in the gospel. Him, 
therefore, I hope to send presently, so soon as I shall 
see how it shall go with me."''^ 

After the deliverance of the Apostle from 
this his first imprisonment at Rome, it is 
still Timothy who is his companion in much 
of his journeying.f Subsequently, the 
Apostle gave him oversight of the church 
at Ephesus. It is while he serves in this 
capacity that the Apostle addresses to him, 
from Macedonia, the letter we call the first 
Epistle to Timothy. J 

But soon the great Apostle's course is 
hastening to its close. In a little time he is 
seized and carried to Rome a prisoner a 



* Philippians ii. 19-23. f i Timothy i. 3. 

X Conybeare and Howson, ''Life of St. Paul," vol. 
ii., p. 462. 



Timothy. 1 87 

a constitution far from robust ; he was not 
naturally a great, strong man, who could go 
through things by the sheer momentum of 
his sturdy health ; for we read, Drink no 
longer water, but use a little wine for thy 
stomach's sake and thine often infirmities.* 
He was not a man who easily and carelessly 
shouldered responsibility, he was naturally 
shrinking and retiring; for we read. Thou, 
therefore, my son, be strong in the grace 
that is in Christ Jesus ; thou, therefore, en- 
dure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus 
Ghrist.f He was not a man unsensitive, 
by the make of his disposition a pioneer ; 
his was a tender, sensitive nature, whose 
nerves were quick and on the surface, and 
whose heart was wounded easily'; for we 
read. How Paul reminds him that he is 
mindful of his tears. J 

Yet, notwithstanding such natural dispo- 
sition, how strong and grand and brave and 
enduring a Christian this Timothy was, we 
have just been seeing. 

* I Timothy v. 23. t ^ Timothy ii. i, 3. 

% 2 Timothy i. 4. 



1 88 G learns from Paul's Prison, 

I said this life of Timothy's was rich in 
important lessons. Let us attend to some 
of them. 

Learn, first, the value of a Christian Ances- 
try. In his second Epistle, Paul writes to 
Timothy : " When I call to remembrance 
the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which 
dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and 
thy mother Eunice, and, I am persuaded, in 
thee also."* Timothy entered upon his 
noble Christian character and service with 
two generations of religious ancestry behind 
him. Who shall say that this had no influ- 
ence in making him the man he was ? It 
did have influence. It could not but have 
influence. • It is in accordance with a most 
profound Divine law that it should have. 
The law of heredity is a law and fact. He- 
redity is an enormous and subtle force, 
helping or hindering. We are not, indeed, 
because of a religious ancestry, born regen- 
erate. But it is still true that the man budded 
from a religious stock is likelier to become 

* 2 Timothy i. 5. 



Timothy. 185 

second time.* * It is amid the rigors of the 
great first general persecution under Nero. 
The first imprisonment was like a June day 
compared with the second, which was like 
an Arctic winter. To be known as Paul's 
friend now was a very serious and danger- 
ous matter. It is too hazardous a thing for 
some who have hitherto called themselves 
his friends. Demas forsakes him. Cresens 
leaves him, too. Possibly even Titus fails 
in thorough friendship. f Only Luke stands 
faithful. And the aged Apostle yearns for 
Timothy. And so he writes to him what we 
know as the second Epistle to Timothy^ 
urging him to come to him. There are 
most pathetic touches in this second Epistle 
— the last one we have from the hands of 
the Apostle. Paul is aged, and his prison 
is cold, and his covering scanty, and so he 
asks Timothy to be sure to bring the travel- 
ling cloak he left at Troas. Also he tells 
him to certainly bring as well the books and 

* Conybeare and Howson, '* Life of St. Paul," vol. 
ii., pp. 482, 491. 
f 2 Timothy iv. 10. 



1 86 Gleams from Paul's Prison. 

parchments* — these will ease a little the 
tedium of his captivity. 

If, as is the opinion of many scholars, w^ 
believe that the Epistle to the Hebrews was 
not written by Paul, but by sorne other 
hand, possibly by that of Barnabas or of 
Apollos, and shortly after the death of 
Paul,f we learn there how nobly Timothy, 
true to the last, responded to this call of 
Paul the aged. For in the thirteenth chap- 
ter of that Epistle and at the twenty-third 
verse the author says, '^ Know ye that our 
brother Timothy is set at liberty I " So that 
Timothy came to Paul at Rome, and stood 
by him even to sharing his imprisonment, 
though at that time he misses Paul's fate, 
for Paul was slain. Afterwards, tradition 
says, Timothy himself met also a martyr's 
death at Ephesus. 

And what kind of a man was this ifaithftil, 
much-enduring, devoted Timothy? He had 



* 2 Timothy iv. 13. 

f Conybeare and Howson, " Life of St. Paul," vol, 
ii., pp. 511, 516. 



Timothy, 1 89 

regenerate. It is a nurturing condition to- 
ward regeneration. It is what a southern ex- 
posure is to a plant or tree. It does not cause 
the tree, but it helps the tree. One of the 
most fearful thoughts concerning a man or 
woman who remains un-Christian is that 
such state renders less likely the becoming 
Christian ot their children. So, also, how 
awful a thing is it to decide against Christ 
when the very strain in one's blood is a 
force toward Him. Be thankful for a Chris- 
tian ancestry — it is one of God's best bless- 
ings. Beware of perverting so great a 
blessing. 

Learn, second, the power of a Christian 
motherhood. In a very special and emphatic 
way the mother of Timothy is mentioned in 
the Scripture. She seems to be singled out 
as a peculiarly noble and religious woman. 
I am very sure it was in great degree be- 
cause of the sort of woman Eunice was that 
Timothy became the sort of man he was. 
Paul tells us, as I have just mentioned, of 
her own unfeigned faith, and then, in another 



I go Gleams from PauVs Prison. 

part of the same second Epistle to Timothy, 
he gives us a glimpse of Eunice's method of 
home-training. He charges Timothy : But 
continue thou \xi the things which thou hast 
learned and hast been assured of, knowing 
of whom thou hast learned them ; and that 
fro77i a child thou hast known the Holy 
Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise 
unto salvation through the faith which is in 
Christ Jesus.* Do we not here come upon 
the open secret of Timothy's pure and lofty 
character ? A mother full of unfeigned 
faith herself, and then a mother brooding 
with this faith over her boy^, and filling, 
prayerfully and constantly, his little mind 
with Holy Scripture, interfusing and com- 
pacting all his growing character with that. 
Nor did she have her husband to help her 
either. As far as we can find out, that 
household was like many now, sadly divided 
religiously— the mother a Christian, the 
father indifferent and careless, if not hostile. 
But the mother was faithful. And out of 
her faithful nurture what blessed fruitage 

" 2 Timothy iii. 14, 15. 



Timothy. 191 

came. Her sphere restricted ? Yes, it was. 
Woman's sphere was terribly restricted 
then. And, I think, when you read about 
and know of underpaid and tasked shop- 
girls, compelled to stand through the long 
hours, and to grab what bite of lunch they 
can behind the counters ; and of their sis- 
ters, the sewing-girls, whose pale, pinched 
faces you can see in throngs any morning 
you traverse the streets of a great city early 
enough, you must feel it is too terribly re- 
stricted now. But, faithful to her God and 
faithful to the truth, what a glory Eunice 
made of even her restricted sphere — through 
Timothy. 

O, if there be any true discouraged moth- 
er whose eye chances to fall upon these 
pages, who stands alone, whose husband 
does not help her a particle religiously, 
whose heart breaks at the thought of her 
unshared religious responsibility for her 
children — remember Timothy's mother, 
Eunice, and take courage, and in Christ's 
strength try to be like her. She who goeth 
forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, 



192 Gleams from Paul's Prison, 

shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, 
bringing her sheaves with her.* 

Learn, third, never to think converted chii- 
dren of small account. Timothy could not 
have been much beyond fifteen years of age, 
if, indeed, he was as old as that, when, 
through Paul's painstaking, he became a 
Christian. I have no doubt there were 
strong men converted there at Lystra — and 
the little company of believers looked up 
to them and depended on them and were 
very glad of them, as was most right. Quite 
likely, when it was rumored that Timothy 
also had given himself to Christ, those be- 
lievers then — as sometimes do believers 
now, rejoicing over some maturer triumph 
— said, " O, that does not amount to much ; 
it's only little Timothy.'' But the truth 
was, that child's conversion amounted to the 
most. He brought a whole life to Christ, 
while these older converts, strong men 
though they were, brought at best but frag- 
ments. And he developed into how vastly 



* Psalm cxxvi. 6. 



Timothy, 193 

more than they. I remember when I was a 
boy I made a visit to New York, and went 
one rainy Sunday to the old First Baptist 
Church in Broome Street to listen to King- 
man Nott. He was preaching from that 
text in Daniel's prophecy, *^ And they that 
be wise shall shine as the brightness of the 
firmament ; and they that turn many to 
righteousness, as the stars forever and 
ever." Glancing upward to a lofty gallery, 
in which were seated some street-children 
gathered into the Sabbath-school, he said — 
and I have never forgotten it — " I would 
rather lead one of those little children to 
the Lord Jesus than be the emperor of the 
proudest realm." And it was a true thing 
to say. To do that is to do a mightier 
thing than to rule, simply in a worldly way. 
To do that is to save a whole life. There 
can be no better ambition for a minister. 
There can be no better ambition for a Sab- 
bath-school teacher. There can be no 
better ambition for anybody. The best 
conyert Paul won, as in the long run it 
turned out, was— only little Timothy. 



194 Gleams from Paurs Prisoft. 

Learn, fourth, how careful we should be coii- 
cerniiig those seeking introduction into the Christian 
mihistry. We are specially told concerning 
Timothy, whom Paul wanted to take with 
himself as a helper and companion in the 
ministr}^, that he was well reported of by 
the brethren that were at Lystra and Ico-, 
nium.* I am sure Paul would not have 
taken him had he not won such good report. 
I am perfectly sure he knew Timothy 
thi^ough and through, and all about him, 
before he suggested his ordination. After- 
ward he specially charges Timothy to lay 
hands hastily on no man,f and writes to 
him in detail the sort of man a pastor ought 
to be.]; When, as in some churches, and as 
ought to be the case in all, laymen together 
with ministers are called to serve upon or- 
daining councils, on the part of both minis- 
ters and laymen, concerning candidates for 
ordination, there ought to be the most strin- 
gent and investigating care. It should 

" Acts xvi. 2. 

r I Timothy v. 22, Revised Version. 

X I Timothy iii. i, 7. 



Timothy, 195 

make no difference what may chance to be 
the wish of the church calling the ordaining 
council or of the candidate seeking ordina- 
tion. Because any one may be disappoint- 
ed or feel badly is no reason why the solemn 
service should go heedlessly on. If there 
be not manifest fitness both in character 
and reputation and ability and culture on 
the part>T&frthe candidate for the sacred 
office, there should be kind, but at the same 
time most firm denial of his entrance on it. 
Irreparable harm has come again and again 
from too good-natured or easy-going ordain- 
ing councils. When men are transacting 
such momentous business for the King, it 
behooves them to do it in the most careful 
and worthy way. Obstruction, refusal, may 
perhaps be an unpleasant duty, but some- 
times even a painful duty should be done. 

Learn, fifth, how the power of Christ can tri- 
umph over 7iatural disposition. You say you 
are not strong physically, and can not do 
much ; Timothy was not, yet he did much. 
You say you are a man shrinking dispo- 



196 Gleams from Paul's Prison, 

sitionally from responsibility, and that, 
therefore, it can not be expected any weighty 
service should be laid upon your shoulders ; 
Timothy was a man like you, yet he bore 
responsibility. You say you are sensitive, 
and so can not go forward in anything lest 
you should be hurt ; Timothy was sensitive, 
yet he went pioneering. 

But he did it all in the power of Christ. 
You can do immensely more than you think 
you can if you will but pray for and expect 
and dwell in His pov/er. 

Five thousand tired and hungry men, be- 
side women and little children — what a 
throng to feed. " Send them away ; we can 
not help them," say the disciples. " Give 
ye them to eat"; "What have you?" are 
Christ's command and question. *^ Five 
loaves " — and the loaves were but as soda 
crackers ; '' and two fishes " — and the fishes 
were but as herrings. " Bring them hither 
to me," the Master said. And they brought 
them. Ah, that was the secret, they brought 
them. And lo ! when He had blessed, and 
when He break, the multitude were fed — 



Timothy, 197 

and there were twelve baskets full of frag- 
ments still. Learn the lesson. It is the 
lesson . for the Christian life. You are too 
meagre and poor and little to do anything 
of yourself. But bring what you are and 
what you have to Christ, and behold, as for 
Timothy so for you, how great and grand 
and beneficent He can make, He will make 
your service. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

EPAPHRODITUS. 

WRITING to these Philippians, the 
Apostle follows his mention of Tim- 
othy with immediate speech concerning 
Epaphroditus. 

Of Timothy much is told us in the New 
Testament, as in the previous chapter we 
have just been seeing. 

Of Epaphroditus there is no other light 
given than that which falls upon him from 
one or two brief cloud-breaks in this 
Epistle. 

In the eighteenth verse of the fourth 
chapter, Paul writes : " But I have all things 
and abound ; I am filled, having received 
from Epaphroditus the things that came 
from you, an odor of a sweet smell, a sacri- 
fice acceptable, well-pleasing to God." * 

* Revised Version. 

(198) 



Epaphroditus. 199 

You see, this Philippian church, of all the 
churches of Paul's planting, was the most 
attached to him, and the most thoughtful 
and timely in various beneficence. It was 
not as Vv^ealthy as were some other churches,* 
but, as Paul tells the Corinthians concerning 
them, their deep poverty abounded unto 
the riches of their liberality.f I suppose 
this means, that everybody gladl}'' gave 
something, and, so, a generous spirit per- 
vading every one, even a comparative pov- 
erty outstripped the larger general wealth 
of other churches, where many were laggard 
and tight-fisted, and, touching giving, were 
depending on the few. Years before, when 
Paul was in Thessalonica, this Philippian 
church had sent once and again unto his 
need ; J subsequently they had done like- 
wise while he was toiling at Corinth, ; § they 
have now heard that the Apostle is here in 
Rome, chained and in want, and their sweet 
mindfulness has not become less quick or 



'"' See 2 Corinthians viii. 2. f Ditto. 

X Philippians iv. 16. § 2 Corinthians xi. g. 



200 Gleams fro7n PauVs Prison. 

large — even as Paul tells them in this Epis- 
tle : *^ But I rejoice in the Lord greatly that 
now, at the last, your care of me hath flour- 
ished again." * As Dean Howson says : 
" The original expression thus translated is 
very beautiful. It reminds us of a tree, 
which, though it may have suffered in hard 
winters, and though it may have been se- 
verely handled by the axe, still lives, and 
sends out fresh and vigorous shoots.*' f 

Now, the messenger appointed by the 
Philippian church to convey from Philippi, 
to the prisoner Paul at Rome, this latest 
offering, was Epaphroditus. He also was 
to carry back from the Apostle to these Phi- 
lippians this Epistle. 

What more is told us of him is in these 
words : 

** Yet I supposed it necessary to send to you Epaph- 
roditus, my brother, and companion in labor, and 
fellow-soldier, but your messenger, and he that minis- 
tered to my wants. For lie longed after you all, and was 



* Philippians iv. lo. 

f *' The Companions of St. Paul," by Dean Howson, 
p. 170. 



Epaphrodit us. 201 

full of heaviness, because that ye had heard that he 
had been sick. For indeed he was sick nigh unto 
death : but God had mercy on him ; and not on him 
only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon 
sorrow. I sent him, therefore, the more carefully, 
that, when ye see him again, ye may rejoice, and that 
I may be the less sorrowful. Receive him, therefore, 
in the Lord, with all gladness ; and hold such in repu- 
tation ; because for the work of Christ he was nigh unto 
death, not regarding his life, to supply your lack of 
service toward me."* 

That is, as another has explained this last 
clause : "That he might perform that part 
of the work of ministering to my need which 
you, from absence and distance, could not 
do ; that he might represent you in that 
personal service toward me from which cir- 
cumstances debarred you." f 

And this is absolutely all we know about 
Epaphroditus. Like a wave upon the sea, 
he rises for a moment, with slight crest, 
and then sinks back forever into the indis- 
tinguishable waters. Yet he comes into our 



* Philippians ii. 25, 30. 

f '' Lectures on the Philippians," by Dr. Vaughan, 
p. 169. 



202 Glea7ns from PatiVs Prison, 

view long enough, I am sure, to suggest to 
us precious and helpful lessons about the 
Life in Christ. 

Let us attend to some of them. 

Consider, first, that we have here sketched 
for us, by the Apostolic hand, the constititents of 
a most noble character. It is thus Paul speaks 
of Epaphroditus : "My brother, and com- 
panion in labor, and fellow-soldier, but your 
messenger, and he that ministered to my 
wants." 

My brother. In this constituent comes out 
the fact of the great new unity in Christ. 
Men had been fellow-citizens before, as in 
the days of the Roman Republic. Men were 
fellow-subjects, as now, in the days of the 
Roman Empire ; held in:*'a kind of external 
coherence by the grasp of an imperial 
power. But it was for Christianity to intro- 
duce, through common faith in a Saviour 
crucified for all, the profounder, intimate, 
vital tie of Brotherhood ; so that in Christ 
Jesus there was neither Barbarian, Scythian, 
bond nor free ; so that all relationships of 



Epaphroditus, 203 

the more partial and outward sort were 
overswept by the overcoming and tidal one 
of unity in Christ, and thus of brotherhood 
with each other. 

This was a fresh and surprising thing — 
this linking of brotherhood in Christ, run- 
ning up from bond to free, and down from 
free to bond, and outward to different 
nationalities and to distant cities, chaining 
diverse race and position and culture into 
oneness. " Nothing more astonished the 
heathen, nothing was more incomprehensi- 
ble to them : ^ behold,' they exclaimed, ^ how 
they love one another.' Among themselves 
Christians called each other Brethren, and 
this fraternal name was no mere word. They 
lived as Brethren. The Church was in 
reality one family, all its members children 
of one Heavenly Father. Each served each 
other ; each prayed for all the rest. Even 
the stranger who came from far, if he but 
brought a letter of recommendation from 
his church, which certified him as a Chris- 
tian, was received and treated as a brother. 
* They love each other without knowing 



204 Gleams from PauVs Prison, 

each other/ says a pagan, in astonishment. 
This was, indeed, the most direct antithesis 
to the heathen saying, ^ Man is a wolf to a 
man whom he does not know/ "* 

Now, Epaphroditus was perfectly clad in 
the beauty of this Brotherhood. He comes 
from Philippi to the prisoned Paul, not the 
mere official carrier of a contribution, but 
with a heart at one with Paul's, and throb- 
bing with the most Christly sympathy. 
Who can not see how like a stream of sun- 
shine into a darkened day such a coming 
must have been ? And this interplay of a 
most sweet fraternity between Paul and 
Epaphroditus and these Philippians, and 
back and forth and forth and back, glinting 
through the Scripture here, is most beauti- 
ful and touching. The brother-heart of 
Paul answers to the brother-heart of Epaph- 
roditus, and when he is caught by sickness 
the heart of Epaphroditus goes out in anx- 
ious longing for his Philippian brothers — 
" For he longed after you all, and was full 

* Ulhorn's "Conflict of Christianity with Heathen- 
ism," pp. 196-7. 



Epaphroditus, 205 

of heaviness because that ye had heard that 
he had been sick/' Paul writes ; and Paul, 
too, is sympathizingly burdened with that 
sickness, and solicitous also concerning the 
anxiety of the Philippians on account of 
Epaphroditus ; and the brother-heart of 
the Apostle kindles at the joy which he 
knows will warm the hearts of the Philip- 
pian brethren when Epaphroditus gets back 
to them safe and sound — as the Apostle 
writes again : " I have sent him, therefore, 
the more diligently, that when ye see him 
again ye may rejoice, and that I may be the 
less sorrowful." It is all one blessed and 
beautiful interchange and tangle of Brother- 
hood. 

** They share their mutual woes, 

Their mutual burdens bear : 
And often, for each other, flows 

The sympathizing tear." 

Ah ! this ability of Brotherhood is an abil- 
ity great and gracious. Every Christian 
should seek to show it forth. It is one of 
the special fruits of the Holy Spirit. There 
is no grace which flings such light and 



2o6 Gleams from Paul's Prison, 

warmth along the paths of fellow-wayfarers 
through this sad world of ours. There is 
no grace which, with such charm, illustrates 
and magnifies our Lord Christ — for was not 
He brother ? Icy, reserved, frowning, coldly 
criticising people Christians have no right 
to be. What a touch and hint of noble 
character — this about Epaphroditus, when 
Paul calls him, my Brother. 

A clergyman sat in his study, busily en- 
gaged in preparing his Sunday sermon. 
His little boy toddled into the room, and 
holding up his pinched finger, said, " Look, 
pa, how I hurt it." The father, interrupted 
in the middle of a sentence, glanced hastily 
at him, and with just the slightest tone 
of impatience, said, " I can't help it, sonny." 
The little fellow's eyes grew bigger and 
wetter, and, as he turned to go out, he an- 
swered, in a low voice, "Yes, you could; 
you might have said, * Oh ! ' " What a reve- 
lation of our heart-needs — the hurt child's 
speech, hurt in his finger and hurt in his 
heart, too. What a help, when you are 
pierced by pain, or aching under weights of 



Epaphrodittis, 207 

sorrow or of service, even if it be no more — 
the exclamation of a real sympathy from a 
brother's heart. 

*' If you have a friend worth loving, 
Love him. Yes, and let him know 

You love him, ere life's evening 
Tinge his brow with sunset glow. 

Why should good words ne'er be said 

Of a friend — till he is dead ? 

*' If you hear a song that thrills you, 

Sung by any child of song. 
Praise it. Do not let the singer 

Wait deserved praises long. 
Why should one who thrills your heart 
Lack the joy you may impart ? 

** If you hear a prayer that moves you 

By its humble, pleading tone, 
Join it. Do not let the seeker 

Bow before his God alone. 
Why should not your brother share 
The strength of * two or three ' in prayer? 

** If you see the hot tears falling 

From a brother's eyes, 
Share them. And, by sharing, 

Own your kinship with the skies. 
Why should any one be glad 
When a brother's heart is sad ? 



2o8 Gleams from Paul's Prison, 

*' If a silvery laugh is rippling 

Through the sunshine on his face, 
Share it. 'Tis the wise man's saying — 

' For both grief and joy a place.* 
There's health and goodness in the mirth 
In which an honest laugh has birth. 

" If your ivork is made more easy 
By a friendly helping hand, 
Say so. Speak out brave and truly, 

Ere the darkness veil the land. 
Should a brother workman dear 
Falter for a word of cheer ? 

" Scatter thus your seeds of kindness, 
All enriching as you go ; 
Leave them. Trust the Harvest Giver, 

He will make each seed to grow ; 
So, until life's happy end. 
You shall never lack a friend." 

The meaning of all which plainly is, that 
we should seek actively to illustrate this 
nobility and beneficence of Brotherhood. 
Let it be one of the purposes of our lives 
that many shall at least think of us, as Paul i 

wrote of Epaphroditus — my Brother. ^ 



Companion in labor — another element in 



\ 



EpaphroditMS, 209 

this noble character. God works, but at 
second hand, through instruments — there is 
no wider-reaching principle of the Divine 
method. His energy urges on the great 
and conquering kingdom, not immediately, 
but mediately. God delivered the Israelites 
from Egypt, but . through Moses. God 
drove out the inhabitants of the promised 
land, but through Joshua. God compacted 
the Hebrew nationality, but through David. 
God brought the wicked Ahab to terms and 
to destruction, but through Elijah. God 
brought back the exiled Israelites from 
Babylon, but through Cyrus and Ezra and 
Nehemiah. .God broke the fetters of the 
Papacy from Europe, but through Luther 
and Melancthon and Zwingle. God abol- 
ished the slave-trade, but through William 
Wilberforce. God planted foreign mis- 
sions, but through William Carey. God 
woke up England from its eighteenth cent- 
ury skepticism and spiritual lethargy, but 
through John Wesley and Charles Wesley 
and George Whitefield. And when the In- 
carnation had taken place, and the Atone- 
14 



2IO Gleams from PauVs Prison. 

ment had been finished, and the Resurrec- 
tion had set its seal of completion and 
victory on the work of Christ, God sent His 
Gospel ringing through the world, but 
through Paul the Apostle, and Philip the 
Evangelist, and the lay helpers Aquila and 
Priscilla, and such as these. A human 
agency is the channel along which the 
Divine purpose flows to its consummation. 
There is always, then, both room and neces- 
sity for. human labor in God*s cause. God 
expects it, waits on it, works through it. It 
was one of the noblest elements in Paul's 
great character that he gave himself to this 
needful and demanded labor with such en- 
thusiastic zeal. It is one of the' elements in 
the noble character of Epaphroditus that he 
became in labor Paul's companion. That is 
what all Christians ought to be — compan- 
ions in labor. " Why stand ye all the day 
idle ? " is God's question. " Son, go work 
to-day in My vineyard," is God's command. 
We pray, " Thy kingdom come," and that is 
right ; but the answ^er to our prayer hastens 
or tarries as we labor or are laggard. Com- 



Epaphroditus, 2 1 1 

panions in labor — that is what all Christians 
ought to be. 

But there is a latent nobility in this com- 
panioning labor of Epaphroditus I should 
like to bring out before you if I can. It 
was a kind of labor which kept itself girded 
and set at duty notwithstanding changing 
and tempting circumstances. There is many 
a sturdy and stirring piety ruined by a sim- 
ple change of residence. There is many a 
Christian much in labor in one place, who 
has only listless hands in another. The 
habit of Christian activity seems often to be 
sloughed off, simply because a man has 
moved from one town or city to another, as 
a snake sloughs off his skin, though this 
new skin of a Christian, rather an un-Chris- 
tian laziness, is a very poor exchange for the 
old one. But the latent nobility of the 
laboring of Epaphroditus, I would have you 
notice, is that it was constant, that it could 
stand this ordeal of change of place. Com- 
ing as he did from the provincial Philippi to 
the metropolis Rome, he was not so occupied 
with its sights and shows and new experi- 



212 Gleams from Paul's Prison. 

ences that he could find no time to lend a 
hand to Paul. There in Rome, even, he be- 
came the Apostle's companion in labor. He 
found work to do and did it, and kept on 
doing it. I like this nobleness in duty 
which is grand enough to stand a change of 
place. 

There is a pertinent vacation lesson for us 
here. The streaming out of the city con- 
gregations into the country in the summer 
has become a fact of our American life. 
Well, v/hen the summer Sunday comes, even 
in the country be, like Epaphroditus, a com- 
panion in labor. Do not be on the look-out 
for nothing to do, but for something to do. 
If it only were more done in the spirit of 
Epaphroditus, this annual streaming out of 
the city congregations into the country 
would be of immense religious benefit. * 

Though you reverse the process, it will ; 

work just as well the other way. He lived ] 

in Philippi, but, coming to Rome, was com* ^ 

panion in labor there. You live in Rome, 
and in the summer go to Philippi, only go 
in the spirit of Epaphroditus, go to be com- \ 



Epaphroditus, 213 

panion in labor there. Here is some hum- 
ble pastor in some little town ; attend his 
ministry, and so help him. Here is some 
struggling Sunday-school ; take the class 
vacant of a teacher, and teach it. Here is 
the country prayer-me€ting ; go to it and 
pray in it and speak in it and smg in it. 
You will do no slight good thus. Help re- 
ligiously wherever you may be. As Epaph- 
roditus did not leave his religion in Philippi, 
refuse to leave yours when for a season you 
leave your home. Ply your ministry even 
in your most transient tarrying-place. Be 
with those with whom in God's providence 
you may sojourn, companions in labor. Be 
that always ; be that everywhere. That is 
a noble character which is persistent in 
duty. 

Fellow-soldier — still another constituent in 
this noble character of Epaphroditus. There 
is no denying it, Christianity is a warfare. 
It is a warfare inward. Paul felt it when 
he said, I see another law in my members 
warring against the law of my mind.* 



Romans vii. 23. 



214 Gleams from PauVs Prison. 

Paul felt it when he said, again, I there- 
fore so run, not as uncertainly ; so fight I, 
not as one that beateth the air.* It is a 
warfare outward. Paul felt this when he 
said. If, after the manner of men, I have 
fought with beasts at Ephesus ; f also 
when he was in perils of robbers, in perils 
by his own countrymen, in perils by the 
heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the 
wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils 
among false brethren. J Now, Epaphroditus 
was one with Paul in this noble struggle ; 
inwardly toward capturing the self for 
Christ ; outwardly toward capturing the 
world for Christ. If Paul was true and 
steady in his higher rank, Epaphroditus was 
as true and steady in his lower. In George 
Ticknor Curtis' ^' Life of Daniel Webster," 
it is told of Captain Webster, the father of 
the great Senator, how, as a soldier in the 
Revolution, he stood guard at Washington's 
head-quarters, the night after Benedict 
Arnold's treason. When he was posted for 



* r Corinthians ix. 26. f i Corinthians xv. 32. 

X 2 Corinthians xi. 26. 



EpaphroditMS. 215 

the night as officer of the guard at head- 
quarters, Washington, oppressed and anx- 
ious at the terrible defection, said to him, 
" Captain Webster, I believe I can trust 
you'' * Fellow-soldier with Washington was 
Captain Webster, and as true in his place as 
the Father of his Country was in his. So, 
true fellow-soldier was Epaphroditus with 
Paul, loyal to the same cause and resolved 
in the same service. And fellow-soldiers 
still are all the Christian strugglers down 
the ages. And that man is no real member of 
the glorious company who is not conscious 
sharer in the battle inwardly, that he may 
master self for Christ ; and in the battle out- 
wardly, that he may do some part toward 
making Christ the master of the world. 

But your messenger and he that ministered to 
77iy wants — thus again Paul speaks of Epaph- 
roditus. By this he means, I think, that 
Epaphroditus was a man ready for any dut)r, 
whether as commissioned carrier of what 
the Philippians sent to Paul, or, being at 



* Vol. i., p. 4, note. 



2i6 Gleams from PauVs Prison, 

Rome, as the glad and ready helper of the 
Apostle. That is to say, he was not a man 
who fastidioiisl}^ picked and chose his duty ; 
would do this thing, but would not do that ; 
was not a man who, doing what was for the 
time bidden, let other and unasked duties lie 
about unlifted. Epaphroditus was a man who, 
when he saw a duty, did it, was ready for 
this or that, now to be messenger, then to 
be minister to the Apostle's need. And here, 
in this gracious ready-handedncss comes out 
another element in his noble character. 
When the late Archdeacon Hare was. tutor 
of Trinity College, Cambridge, and was one 
day giving a lecture, a cry of fire was raised. 
Away his pupils rushed, and, forming them- 
selves into a line between the building, 
which was close at hand, and the river^ 
passed buckets from one to another. The 
tutor, quickly following, found them thus 
engaged, and at the end of the line saw one 
youth, delicate, and apparently consump- 
tive, standing up to his waist in the river. 
^' What ! " cried Mr. Hare, " you in the water, 
Sterling ; you, so liable to take cold." 



Epaphrodit us, 217 

" Somebody must be in it," the youth an- 
swered ; " why not I as w^ell as another ? '* 
Such is the spirit of all great and generous 
doing. *^ Somebody else will doit, let him," 
the mean man says. ^^ Somebody else will 
do it, let him," too many professing Chris- 
tians say, lazy, inert, prayerless, having a 
name to live, yet dead. But such will do 
nothing. They are not good for doing ; 
they are only good for looking on and crit- 
icising. But a real nobility of character, 
seeing what for Christ's cause must be done, 
cries out, with sturdy cheer, "Somebody 
must do it, why not I ? " and Christ's cause 
goes on triumphantly. Such great and gen- 
erous doer was Epaphroditus ; messenger 
or helper he would be; it mattered little 
which ; either or both, so that what needed 
to be done for the Master's cause w^ere done 
well and quickly. 

Surely a most noble character— this of 
Epaphroditus — held here in the amber of 
Paul's speech about him, for your inspira- 
tion and for mine. A Brother, a Companion 



2i8 Glea?ns from Paters Prison, 

in labor, a Fellow-soldier, a man, the cheer- 
ful utterance of whose ready spirit was, 
" Somebody must do it, why not I ? " 

Surely that man of us is noblest who is 
most like Epaphroditus ; surely that church 
is the most prosperous which numbers the 
most members like him. 

Consider, second, that even to a man so 
noble and so true to duty as was Epaphro- 
ditus trouble ca?ne. There in Rome he was 
taken sick. " For indeed he was sick, nigh 
unto death," says Paul. And then he tells 
us the cause of such sad sickness — even too 
strenuous toil ; because for the work of 
Christ, he was nigh unto death. We would 
say such a worker, and at such a time, ought 
surely to be kept at working. But how true 
is it, that God's thoughts are not our 
thoughts, nor His ways ours. The place of 
duty is always the place of the shining of 
"the sun behind the sun.'' But it is still 
true that even the place of duty is not de- 
void of shadows. Abraham was in the place 
of duty when at God's call he entered 



Epaphroditiis, 2 1 9 

Canaan ; but even in Canaan Abraham met 
trouble. The disciples were in the way of 
duty when, at the command of Christ, they 
set out on that night voyage to Bethsaida ; 
but that did not prevent the beating against 
them of that fierce head wind, nor shield 
from the necessity of exhausting struggle at 
their oars. This is a notion which the ex- 
perience of life and the whole tenor of the 
Scripture ought to make us readier at un- 
learning than we are — that the clouds of 
trouble do not often build their chill, grey 
dome over the place of duty and of service. 
They do. And as Vv^e look at Epaphroditus, 
so grand a Christian, and carrying himself 
in such noble Christian fashion, yet smitten 
to death's door by sickness — the lesson is, 
that we are not to be surprised if the feet 
we resolutely set in duty's track strike, now 
and then, rough places, nor are we to imag- 
ine that we are not where duty calls if 
trouble comes. 

Consider, third, that over and in the shad- 
owing trouble there was a pityi7ig and loving 



\ , 



220 Gleams from PauVs Prison. 

God. But God had mercy on him; and 
not on him only, but on me also, lest I 
should have sorrow uppn sorrow — writes 
the Apostle. There are several things worth 
careful noting concerning this deathly sick- 
ness of Epaphroditus, over which God yet 
held pitying and loving hand. 

One is — that even for such men as were 
Paul and Epaphroditus God makes no dif- 
ference in the execution of His laws. Be- 
cause Epaphroditus had exhausted him- 
self even in the work of Christy it did not fol- 
low that sickness would not come. There 
is something awful in the steadiness of God 
to His own law. Certainly of many at that 
time is Matthew Arnold's poem true : 

** In his cool hall, 
With haggard eye, 
The Roman noble lay " — 

And his eye was haggard, and his brow- 
fevered, and his whole life joyless v/ith the 
sickness which dissipation had brought upon 
him and awful license, to tell of which no 
words are fit. And here was Epaphroditus 



Epaphroditus. 221 

near to death with sickness, too — but for 
how different a reason, even because of too 
exhausting work for Christ. Yet the sick- 
ness came. If I infringe God's physical 
law, though for the noblest purpose, still the 
penalty falls. Sometimes, and I doubt not 
it was the case with Epaphroditus, a higher 
iaw must take precedence of a lower. Some- 
times, for the sake of some great end, just 
because the higher is nobler than the lower, 
it is right for a man deliberately to say, I 
will push this cause of God and man, even 
until I lay myself out a sacrifice upon its 
altar, in sickness or in death. He is a poor 
soldier who will not dare wounds and death 
for his cause. But let us be certain, God 
will not change His laws even for such rea- 
son. Do not look for a special dispensation 
of Providence in the case. 

Another thing worth noting, just here, is 
— that though there was such a thing as the 
ministry of a sudden and miraculous healing 
in the early Church, that ministry was not 
at men's constant beck and call. It was 
something special and peculiar, and only 



222 Gleams from Paul's Prison. 

occasionally conferred. It is a fair ques- 
tion, if Paul could at any time miraculously 
hea'^ a sick man, why, instead of bending in 
such sorrowful anxiety over Epaphroditus, 
did he not by a word heal him ? The plain 
answer is, he could not. That ability was 
only given now and then, for some great 
special purpose. There has been much talk 
among religious circles lately about a mirac- 
ulous healing of the sick by prayer only. I 
am not going to deny the possibility. I am 
only going to say that, even in the early 
Church, it was at best unusual, and, in the, 
at least, apparent cessation of miraculous 
power in the Church of to-day, it is likely 
to be still more unusual. 1 think Epaphro- 
ditus, lying here sick in Rome, and with 
Paul sorrowing over him and plainly unable 
to heal him, ought to be a rebuke to those 
presumptuous people who, if they do not 
discard the use of means, at least look down 
upon them in a kind of disdainful way. 
The truth is that your sickness is God*s call 
to you for the best physician you know, and 
to the most sedulous use of means. Then 



EpaphroditMS, 223 

pray for God's blessing on the means and 
you are in God's order. To throw awa}^ 
means is to throw away one of the links in 
God's chain. When I sedulously use means 
and sedulously use prayer, then I may ex- 
pect God's blessing, but not otherwise. 

For another tMnp; to be noted about this 
sickness of Epaphroditus is what I just said, 
that somehow God was in it and over it. 
But God had mercy upon him, says the 
Apostle. I am not by a presumptuous use 
of prayer to discard means, nor am I by a 
presumptuous use of means to discard God 
and the prayer which reaches Him. I may 
not be able to tell precisely how, but it is 
still true that God is in things and over 
things. The ultimate cause is God. It is 
in Him we live and move and have our 
being. It is His hand that brings back the 
traveller who has gone nigh to the gates of 
death, and it is His hand also that opens for 
him those gates of mystery and His voice 
that bids him enter them. So be sure of 
this ; doubt it never ; even though you be 
smitten down as was Epaphroditus, some- 



224 Gleams from PauVs Prison. 

how a pitying and loving God is over you, 
and with you, too. 

Consider, fourth, that we are joyfully to rec- 
ognize God in the affairs of life. Receive 
him, therefore, in the Lord with all glad- 
ness, writes the Apostle. Go to now, ye 
that say. To-day or to-morrow we will go 
into this city, and spend a year there, and 
trade and get gain : whereas ye know not 
what shall be on the morrow. What is your 
life ? For ye are a vapor, that appeareth 
for a little time, and then vanisheth away. 
For that ye ought to say. If the Lord will, 
we shall both live, and do this or that. But 
now ye glory in your vauntings : all 
such glorying is evil.* It was God who 
gave back Epaphroditus to these Philip- 
pians. They were to receive him in the 
Lord, as God's gift to them. It is God also 
who gives us all the blessings of our lives. 
In thankful speech and praise we are to rec- 
ognize Him, the Giver, and find new bright- 
ness in the brightnesses He sends, since it is 

* James iv. 13, 16, Revised Version. 



Epaphroditus. 225 

He who sends them. " Rejoice in the Lord, 
O ye righteous : for praise is comely for the 
upright."* 

Consider, fifth, the sure memory of worth. 
Here was a true man coming to this prisoned 
Paul; and now, just because he was the 
noble, helpful man he was, he lives embalm- 
ed in the grateful mention of the Apostle. 
That is all we know about him — that he 
was, and was such a man— but what a happy 
memory to leave. O friends, such sort of 
noble fame is possible for all of us. Not on 
parchment may our names be written, but 
we can leave them written upon human 
hearts, even as the name of Epaphroditus 
was on Paul's. There is a sure memory of 
worth. Do you remember Wordsworth's 
poem of " The Solitary Reaper " ? There she 
is, a peasant girl, at her duty, cutting down 
the grain waving on the Scottish highlands. 
And as she works, she sings glad notes out 
of a trustful heart. The poet is passing by. 
He does not speak to her. I do not think 



* Psalm xxxiii. i, 
15 



226 Glea^ns from Paul's Prison, 

she even sees the poet. But how much good 
she does him, and because of the good she 
does, how, henceforth, the poet treasures 
her in memory : 

" Whate'er the theme, the maiden sang 
As if her song could have no ending ; 
I saw her singing at her work, 

And o'er her sickle bending ; — 
I listened, motionless and still ; 
And, as I mounted up the hill. 
The music in my heart I bore^ 
Long after it was heard no more." 

Heart-fame may be ours too. If we, as 
did Epaphroditus, keep sounding through 
our life true and noble music, some heart 
shall be helped by it and shall hallow it and 
our memory shall not die. 



CHAPTER IX. 

REJOICING IN THE LORD. 

1 THINK that a very noble romance by 
Mr. Georg Ebers, entitled '* The Em- 
peror/' This German scholar is the present 
authority upon all matters relating to ancient 
Egypt. The scene of the story is laid in 
Egypt. The "Emperor'* is the Roman Em- 
peror Hadrian, who was proclaimed Master 
of the World in the year one hundred and 
seventeen after Christ, succeeding Trajan. 
The object of the story is twofold — to depict 
the character of one of the greatest men 
who ever wore the Roman purple ; and also 
to show how, in those days, Christianity was 
steadily and silently winning its way. 

The Emperor Hadrian had come to Alex- 
andria, in Egypt. He was much given to 
visiting his various dominions. At Alexan- 
dria they were repairing for his occupancy 
an old palace. At this work multitudes of 

(227) 



228 Gleams from Paul's Prison. 

slaves had been set. The Emperor was. ac- 
companied by a favorite slave, whose name 
was Mastor. This slave had a family, but, 
of course, was torn from it while he was 
away with the Emperor. The slave's family 
was his one joy, and the thought of it kept 
a happy peace singing in his heart. He had 
just heard news, however, that his home 
had been ruthlessly despoiled and broken 
up — his wife gone, one of his little children 
slain, the other in helpless woe and want. 
And he, nobody but a slave, with no one to 
appeal to, and with no power to do anything. 
He is utterly wretched ; he spends the night 
in tears and sobs ; he doesn't care what be- 
comes of him ; he longs to die. 

He was obliged to go, in the early morn- 
ing, down into the court of the palace to 
bring water for the Emperor's bath. Down 
there he comes upon a group of these work- 
ing slaves who have been set at the repair- 
ing of the palace. They are just preparing 
their frugal breakfast ; and one old man, 
dressed in a poor and scanty tunic, but with 
a wonderful quiet joy shining out of his 



Rejoicing in the Lord, 229 

eyes, is talking to the group. As Mastor, 
the Emperor's slave, approaches, this is 
what the aged man is saying : " Let us go 
back to our labors, my Brethren. In the 
sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread, it is 
written. It is often hard to us old men to 
heave stones and bend our stiff backs for so 
long together ; but we are nearer than you 
younger ones to the happy future. Life is 
not easy to all of us, but it is we who ^ labor 
and are heavy-laden' — we, above all others, 
that the Lord has bidden to be His guests, 
and not last among us the slaves." " Come 
unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy 
laden and I will refresh you," interrupted 
one of the younger men, repeating the words 
of Christ. 

"Yea, thus saith the Saviour," said the 
old man, approvingly ; " and He surely then 
was thinking of us. I said just now our 
load is not light, but how much heavier was 
the burden He took upon Him of His own 
free will .to release us from woe. Everyone 
must work — nay, even Caesar himself ; but 
He, who could dwell in the glory of His 



2 30 Gleams from Paul 's Prison, 

Father, let Himself be mocked and scorned 
and spit in the face, let the crown of thorns 
be pressed on His suffering head, bore His 
heavy cross, sinking under its weight, and 
endured a death of torment, and all for 
our sakes, without a murmur. But He suf- 
fered not in vain, for God accepted the sac- 
rifice of His Son who did His will, and said, 
^AU that believe on Him should not perish, 
but have everlasting life.' And though a 
new and weary day is now beginning, and 
though it should be followed by a thousand 
wearier still, though death is the end of life 
— still we believe in our Redeemer ; we have 
God's Word bidding us out of sorrows and 
sufferings into His Heaven, promising us, 
for a brief time of misery in this world, end- 
less ages of joy ; — now go to work." 

And then the old man went on to address 
himself to certain special members of the 
group. This white-haired Christian was the 
overseer of these slaves. " Our sturdy 
friend, Krates," he said, *^ will work for you, 
dear Knakias, until your finger is healed. 
When the bread is distributed, remember, 



Rejoicing in the Lord, 231 

each one of you, the children of our poor de- 
ceased brother Philamon. You, poor Gibbus, 
will find your labors bitter to-day. This man's 
master, my dear Brethren, sold both his 
daughters yesterday to a dealer from Smyr- 
na ; but if you never see them again in 
Egypt, or in any other country, my friend, 
you will meet them in the Home of your 
Heavenly Father — of that you may rest as- 
sured. Our lite on earth is but a pilgrim- 
age, and Heaven is the goal, and the Guide 
who teaches us never to mJss the way is our 
Saviour. Weariness and toil, sorrow and 
suffering, are easy to bear, to him who 
knows that when the solemn hour is near 
the King of Kings shall throw open His 
Dwelling-Place, and invite him to enter as 
a favored guest " — the old man went on to 
say. 

*^ Come unto Me all ye that labor and are 
heavy-laden, and I will refresh you," an- 
swered, again, another from the group. And 
then they ate their frugal meal ; and then, 
with strong hands, because there was in 
their hearts a strange, rich joy, they went 
at their hard duty. 



232 Gleams from Paul's Prison. 

And for this Emperor's slave, Mastor — 
standing here and listening to it all — to 
these great new words of a Divine sympathy 
and help and promise — there shone a gleam 
through the darkness of his trouble ; and 
subsequently, as the story goes, he entered 
as another convert into the heart-help and 
heart-joy of Christianity.* 

Now, I have no doubt at all, that this 
little sketch is a perfect picture from the 
life. It was in this way precisely that in 
those days Christianity won its way. It had 
something for men which nothing else had, 
which heathenism had not, nor any philos- 
ophy, Stoical or Epicurean. It could tell 
men of a suffering, helping, divinely power- 
ful and crowned Brother-Christ. It could 

• 

open for men — for the lowest, for the slave 
even — the certainty of the eternal shining 
to which not rank nor riches, but faith only, 
was the entrance, and where the lowliest 
should become the guests of God. And so, 
you see, even into such oppressed and driven 

•••■ '*The Emperor," by Georg Ebers, English trans- 
lation, vol. i.,pp. 192, 196. 



Rejoicing in the Lord, ' 233 

ones as were these slaves toiling at the 
stones of Hadrian's palace it could send an 
inner joy of heart which outward condition 
could not spoil, which could take the pang 
out of pain, and give to the weight of even 
such heavy toil as theirs a kind of wing and 
uplift. 

The Apostle writes to these Philippian 
Christians : 

Finally, my Brethren, rejoice in the Lord.* 

And now, do you not also see — and in 
order that you might see it I have told you 
this fragment of the story — how these slaves 
in the court of Hadrian's palace were doing 
precisely what Paul told these Philippians 
to do — they were rejoicing in the Lord. I 
did not know where to find, than in this 
snatch from this tale, a better illustration 
of the Apostle's meaning. Joyless enough 
outwardly their lives were — that is evident 
enough ; but their hearts held something 
better than even the Emperor Hadrian knew 



* Philippians iii. I, 



234 ' Gleams from Paul's Prison. 

of, for they had found the rejoicing which 
is in the Lord. 

Many of the members of this Philippian 
church were slaves, too, like these toilers at 
Hadrian's Alexandrian palace. The early 
Christians were mostly poor people, despised 
and oppressed. Just now also these Philip- 
pians were in much trouble. Their beloved 
Apostle was a prisoner at Rome — whether 
he would be slain or not neither they nor he 
could tell ; Epaphroditus, of whom we were 
thinking in the last chapter, and who was 
perhaps their pastor, was away from them, 
and had been sick nigh unto death ; they were 
only a little buffeted band of humble Chris- 
tians — and to be Christian then meant 
worldly pain and loss and scorning and sac- 
rifice. And yet there is joy for them, and 
they are to rejoice. Writes the Apostle : 

Finally, my Brethren, rejoice in the Lord. 

This, then, is our thought — the Christian 
Duty of. rejoicing in the Lord, 

Will you notice, in the first place, that it 
is a co?nmand which is here laid on Chris- 



Rejoicing in the Lord. 235 

tians. This rejoicing is something in which 
Christians are expected to be found. Re- 
joice in the Lord. The verb is imperative. 
Nor is this Scripture the only one in which 
this duty is enjoined. Again in this Epistle, 
in the last chapter, Paul urges — Rejoice in 
the Lord alway : again I will say, Rejoice.* 
In the Epistle to the Thessalonians the same 
command sounds out — Rejoice evermore.f 
Christians are to be a rejoicing company. 
The}^ are not to be of the blackness, they 
are to be of the brightness. Here is a com- 
mand. We are not enough apt to think of 
rejoicing as a duty commanded. We are 
apt, rather, to think of it as a mood, to be 
now and then, by some good chance, attain- 
ed ; as a great boon which may occasionally 
drop down upon us, but not as a possible 
and enjoined habitude of heart within whose 
shining confines and amid whose jubilance 
it is our high obligation to remain. 

Nay, we go further than this, and are even 
somewhat chary of a too much rejoicing. 



Philippians iv. 4. \ i Thessalonians v. 16. 



236 Gleams from Paul's Prison, 

We think there is danger in it — presump- 
tion, I know not what of possible evil. The 
world is full of proverbs like this — " Do not 
laugh before breakfast or you will cry be- 
fore night," and Christian people have not 
been the first in speech and conduct to de- 
clare the adage false. Simon Stylites 
thought himself a great saint, because, for 
forty years, he lived upon the top of a pillar 
and never once came down. And there are 
Christians still who seem to think that the 
best odor of sanctity hangs- about an iso- 
lated, withdrawn, cheerless, glum, gloom- 
shrouded life. But there is no such Chris- 
tianity to be found in the pages of the New 
Testament. Its notes are not a dirge, they 
are a pean. Even amid the gathering shad- 
ows of Gethsemane and the Crucifixion, the 
best prayer the Master could find to utter 
for His disciples was that they might have 
His joy fulfilled in themselves. Christian 
men and women — it is your duty to rejoice. 
It is the commanded Christian mood, there- 
fore it is the normal Christian mood. 
Religion ought not to be a north-east wind, 



Rejoicing in the Lord. 237 

but sunshine and sweet June weather. The 
wrong is, not in having too much rejoicing, 
but too little. Listen, again, to such " Or- 
ders for the day" as these for Christian sol- 
diers. Finally, my Brethren, Rejoice in the 
Lord. Rejoice in the Lord alway ; and 
again I will say, Rejoice. Rejoice ever- 
more. Rejoicing is, then, a conmiand for 
Christians. 

Notice, in the second place, sofne of the 
7'easons why a high rejoicing in the Lord is 
necessarily a Christian duty. 

One reason is, because it is only out of a 
rejoicing heart that the best Christian work 
can come. A dull heart makes heavy hands. 
Once, in the East, an artisan in the service 
of a rich master got into hopeless debt. 
His creditor was merciless, and told the man 
that unless he paid his debts within the year 
both himself and family should be sold as 
slaves. For the man to pay thedebt^was as 
impossible as it would have been for him to 
pile up the great pyramid in a night. His 
heart was chill and dull under this shadow. 



238 Gleams from PatiVs Prison, 

His master noticed that every week his work 
was falling off. One day he spoke about it 
to the steward. *^Why, sir,*' the steward 
answered, '' that poor fellow can not possibly 
make good work. He can not manage his 
tools, for his hands tremble ; nor can he see 
what he is doing, for his eyes are often filled 
with tears. He often sits down as in despair 
and sighs heavily. A heavy debt is pressing 
upon him, sir ; and until it is paid, he will 
not be able to make one good piece of 
work." ** Tell him, then, that I have paid 
his debt,'' said the master. And when the 
steward told the poor fellow, as you may 
suppose, joy unsealed its fountains in his 
heart. And now the hands, which had been 
moving as though there were great drags 
on them, became like wings. The master 
noticed no more falling off in work. The 
man's work was done swiftly, easily, van- 
quishingly, because it was done out of a 
joyful heart. Those returned exiles at Jeru- 
salem were in sufficient trouble. They had 
had a terrible time building their walls and 
fighting enemies at the same time. To re- 



Rejoicing in the Lord. 239 

organize and recompact their shattered 
nationality was a task of no small difficulty. 
And when standing within the protection of 
their rebuilt walls, and listening to the law, 
as from the pulpit in the street Ezra read it 
to them, it was no wonder that they should 
mourn and weep as they contrasted the 
glories of their fathers with their own weak- 
ness and sad ruin. But Nehemiah was a 
wise man. He well knew that mourning 
and weeping hearts make nerveless hands. 
There was a great work before the people. 
They are joyful hearts which make strong 
hands. And so he said to them — This day 
is holy unto the Lord your God, mourn not, 
nor weep. Go your way, eat the fat, and 
drink the sweet, and send portions unto 
them for whom nothing is prepared ; for 
this day is holy unto our Lord ; neither be 
ye sorry, for the joy of the Lord is your 
strength.* 

Says Mr. Emerson, " The joy of the spirit 
indicates its strength.*'' If one be in cheer- 
ful temper, the faculties work well and 

* Nehemiah viii. 9, 10. 



240 Gleams from Paul's Prison, 

easily ; the imagination is clear, the judg- 
ment undisturbed ; the whole soul is brave 
and powerful and master of itself. And 
thus the soul can nerve the hand for strong 
and conquering work. 

" We in ourselves rejoice, 
And thence flows all that charms or ear or sight, 

All melodies the echoes of that voice, 
All colors a suffusion from that light." * 

It is truth that Coleridge sings. What we 
are within makes the most of that which is 
without. We need to obey this command of 
rejoicing in the Lord that out of glad hearts 
we may do victorious deeds for Jesus. I am 
sure we can not do them out of gloomy, 
moping, complaining, dejected hearts. 

Then, another reason why a high rejoic- 
ing in the Lord is necessarily a Christian 
duty is, that it is only such rejoicing w^hich 
rightly illustrates Christianity and so wins 
toward it. Do I not remember him ? Shall 
I ever forget him ? — ^that shrewd, kindly, 
heart-shining and so face-shining old Scotch 



* * 



'Ode to Dejection.*' 



Rejoicing in the Lord, 241 

deacon, who was to my boyhood as a day in 
June. Can I ever cease to remember that 
lesson he taught me once of the duty and 
ability of looking at the brighter side of 
things ; because even in what looks dark 
there is yet, though just now it may seem 
hidden, the gleam of the tender love of the 
Heavenly Father? He a withered, bent, 
rheumatic,, asthmatic old man, winning a 
little living by raising and selling flowers ; 
and I a boy sitting with him one cold No- 
vember day in the pleasant warmth of his 
small green-house, and he cutting away at 
the roots of some plant or other, and. I be- 
ginning to commiserate him — and he, with 
such sunshine in his face and such a cheery 
tone in his quavering voice, breaking in on 
me, and answering, "Why, my mon, don't 
you see the Lord is verra gude to me ; don't 
you see what a pleasant place Fve got to 
work in ? — Why, mon, the climate of my 
green-house here is as pleasant as the cli- 
mate of Italy; the Lord is goody — Dear, 
genial, brave, grand Christian ; so brave 
and grand and genial because the joy of the 
16 



242 Gleams frorn Paul's Prison. 

Lord was his strength. When I have 
thought things hard, and have fallen into 
dull and sullen discontent, how many times 
has that lesson of rejoicing come to me, and 
set me to counting up my mercies, and set 
again the birds a-singing that I had fool- 
ishly thought were flown and even dead. 
And do I not remember how that shining 
face of his, which was but the adumbration 
of a shining heart, drew me on toward Jesus, 
back there in my boyhood, and how scarce 
an uplifting influence in my early days was 
more powerful than that rejoicing heart. 

Why, men and women, one such Christian 
as that Scotch deacon was worth a regiment 
of your doubters and your drivelers and 
your complainers and your Christians 
chronically out of sorts. I said — and I was 
not the only one — the whole city said it, \ 

when he died they almost shut the stores 
and hung the flags at half-mast to honor 
him — *' Why," men said, " he is a Christian, 
he illustrates the sort of Christianity worth k 
having, he shows forth the kind of Christi- * 
anity / want." The strongest pulpit in 



Rejoicing in the Lord. 243 

Cleveland was Deacon Sked's green-house : 
— nay, rather, was the old saint's Christian 
heart which kept on rejoicing in the Lord. 

Besides, another reason why a high re- 
joicing in the Lord is necessarily a Christian 
duty is because there is so much in Christi- 
anity which is occasion for rejoicing. 

There is in Christianity the revelation of 
a guarding, helping Heavenly Father. How 
joyful those ought to be who believe a truth 
like this, may perhaps be best seen in con- 
trast with the smitten slavish life of a man 
who willfully rejects it. Lord Macaulay 
tells of D'Argens, one of the infidelistic crew 
whom Frederick the Great of Prussia gath- 
ered round himself. This man hated Chris- 
tianity with the utmost rancor, and would 
not believe in God. And then, of necessity, 
since a man must have something to believe 
in, fell into the most pitiable faith in the 
silliest of superstitions. He would not sit 
down at table with thirteen in the company ; 
he turned pale if the salt fell toward him ; 
he begged his guests not to cross their 
knives and forks on their plates ; he would 



2 ^.4 Gleams front Paul ' s Prison. 

not for the world begin a journey on Fri- 
day ; if his head ached or his pulse beat 
quick, so frightened was he that his dastardly 
fears and effeminate precautions were the 
jest of all Berlin.* Small rejoicing in such 
a life. How full of rejoicing ought to be 
the life settled in the faith that all things 
work together for good to them that love 
God. 

There is in Christianity the revelation of 
a forgiving Christ. What a great, true hymn 
that is by Count Zinzendorf, and how 
abounding in rejoicing should those be who 
have a right to sing it. 

" Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness 
My beauty are, my glorious dress, 
'Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed. 
With joy shall I lift up my head. 

'* Lord, I believe Thy precious blood. 
Which, at the mercy-seat of God, 
Forever doth for sinners plead, 
For me, e'en for my soul, was shed. 

*' Lord, I believe were sinners more 
Than sand upon the ocean shore. 



* Macaulay's " Essays," vol. v., p. 190. 



Rejoicing in the Lord, 245 

Thou hast for all a ransom paid, 
For all a full atonement made." "* 

There is in Christianity a revelation of a 
future Heaven. 

And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain 
great and high, and shewed me the holy city Jerusa- 
lem, coming down out of heaven from God, having 
the glory of God : her light was like unto a stone most 
precious, as it were a jasper stone, clear as crystal : 
having a wall great and high : having twelve gates, 
and at the gates twelve angels : and the building of 
the wall thereof was jasper : and the city was pure 
gold, like unto pure glass. The foundations of the 
wall of the city were adorned with all manner of 
precious stones. And the twelve gates were twelve 
pearls ; each one of the several gates was of one 
pearl : and the street of the city was pure gold, as it 
were transparent glass. And I saw no temple there- 
in : for the Lord God the Almighty, and the Lamb, 
are the temple thereof. And the city hath no need of 
the sun, neither of the moon, to shine upon it : for the 
glory of God did lighten it, and the lamp thereof is the 
Lamb.f 

Surely full of rejoicing should those be 
who front so glorious a Home and Destiny. 



* From the hymn by Count Zinzendorf, 1739 ; trans- 
lated by John Wesley, 1740. 

+ Revelation, chap, xxi., Revised Version. 



246 Gleams fi'om Paul V Prison, 

With such truths, and a whole realm of 
others like them, on which to stay their 
hearts, and with such resplendent issue 
toward which their faces 'turn, where can 
the Children of the King find right or reason 
to go mourning all their days ? 

Notice, in the third place, some of the 
ways in which we may obey this command 
of Rejoicing in the Lord. 

By keeping before ourselves the t7'ue end 
of the True Life. In one of the noblest ser- 
mons in any language — that on happiness 
and joy, by Dr. Horace Bushnell — a distinc- 
tion is most sharply made, our usual blur- 
ring of which much hinders our rejoicing in 
the Lord. It is just this distinction between 
happiness and joy. Dr. Bushnell says : 
"Thus happiness, according to the original 
use of the term, is that which happens^ or | 
comes to one by hap^ that is, by an outward I 

befalling or favorable condition. Some i 

good is conceived, out of the soul, which \ 

comes to it as a happy visitation, stirring in 
the receiver a present excitement. It is what 



Rejoicing in the Lord, 247 

money yields or will buy ; dress, equipage, 
fashion, luxuries of the table ; or its settle- 
ment in life, independence, love, applause, 
admiration, honor, glory, or the more con- 
ventional and public benefits of rank, polit- 
ical standing, victory, power. All these stir 
a delight in the soul, which is not of the 
soul, or its quality, but from without. 
Hence they are looked upon as happening 
to the soul, and, in that sense, create happi- 
ness. But 303^ differs from this, as being of 
the soul itself, originating in its quality. 
And this appears in the original form of the 
word ; v/hich, instead of suggesting a hap^ 
literally denotes a leap or spring. The radi- 
cal idea, then, of joy is this : that the soul 
is in such order and beautiful harmony, has 
such springs of life opened in its own blessed 
virtues, that it pours forth a sovereign joy 
from within. It is not the bliss of condition, 
but of character. The soul has a light in 
its own luminous center, where God is." * 
Now, it is not the business of Christianity 



* <« 



Sermons for the New Life," pp. 226-7. 



248 Gleams from Paul's Prison, 

to confer happiness ; but it is the business 
of Christianity to implant joy. Wliat Chris- 
tians are to look for and expect out of their 
religion is not happiness so much ; it is joy. 
The soul is to front, not outward things — 
money, equipage, fashion, luxury, honor, 
applause ; but inward things — the still rest 
and quiet peace and shining joy which 
come from the Divine Indwelling. If you 
are bound to get your chief good out of 
condition instead of out of character, you 
will not have much rejoicing in the Lord. 
But if you will put the true end of the True 
Life before yourself, if you will determine 
to make your chief good character^ if you 
will value likeness to the Lord more than 
the external trappings and gewgaws of a 
merely outward happiness, you shall find 
that the Lord shall so come to you and 
dwell in you and speak to you and honor 
you and satisfy you that your heart shall be 
an unending song and your days perpetual 
praise. But you can not rejoice in the Lord 
if all the time you are determined to rejoice 
in things— nor out of them can you get much 



Rejoicing in the Lord, 249 

lasting rejoicing any way. Keep before 
yourself the true end of a True Life — the 
Lord, His conscious presence, His benedic- 
tion audible enough to your inward ear ; 
put sternly out of your life what will hinder 
that, and you shall enter the Divine Sum- 
mer, and, like the birds thronging the sum- 
mer, your heart shall not be able to help 
singing because of its rejoicing in the Lord. 
Still another way of obeying this command 
of rejoicing in the Lord is by looking away 
unto Jesus."^ How long shall I take counsel 
in my soul having sorrow in my heart daily ? 
wails David in the thirteenth Psalm, The 
answer is easy : David shall have sorrow in 
his heart just as long as he takes counsel in 
his soul. Looking inward and downward 
David shall not find occasion for much else 
than sorrow, nor shall any man. But when 
David begins to look upward and outward 
and Godward, lo ! the Psalm which begins 
as a plaint ends as a praise — I will sing unto 
the Lord because He hath dealt bountifully 
with me.f From my sin and weakness, 

* Hebrews xii, 2. f Psalm xiii. 6. 



250 Gleams from Pants Prisoft, 

which indeed is sorrowful enough, let me 
look away to Jesus, who for my sin is for- 
giveness, and for my weakness a present 
help, and I shall find inexhaustible reason 
for rejoicing. 

And another way in which we may obey 
this command of rejoicing in the Lord is by 
a humble, reverent, and yet real claiming of 
our privileges in the Lord. Passing out of 
a religious service one saw an old man with 
a deep gloom upon his face. ** You are not 
happy, friend," he said. " No, I am not," 
the old man answered ; " I have been pray- 
ing for salvation for twenty years." *^ Pray- 
ing for salvation for twenty years," the other 
exclaimed ; and then, by a most pertinent 
illustration, he showed him how needless 
such unanswered praying was. " The other 
day," said he, " I saw a gentleman who w^as 
paralyzed on one side, and was wheeled 
about in a Bath chair. As he was out one 
day he saw a poor man sitting by the road- 
side smitten in the same manner, and calling 
out, *0, for God's sake, give me a ha'pney.' 
The rich man told his servant to wheel him 



Rejoicing in the Lord. 251 

over to the poor man. He did so, and the 
gentleman held out a half-a-crown to the 
beggar. But the man still kept crying, * O, 
for God*s sake, give me a ha'pney ! * He 
was blind. The gentleman said, ' Here, my 
good fellow, is a half-a-crown for you/ But 
the man was deaf, and he still kept calling out 
for a half-penny. The servant w^heeled the 
gentleman nearer, and at last he made the 
poor man hear, and then he thankfully took 
the half-crown. Now, my friend," this man 
went on to say, "that is just what you are 
about. God is offering you salvation as a 
free gift, through the blood of Jesus Christ ; 
but instead of taking it, and thanking Him 
for it, and rejoicing in it, you keep on ask- 
ing for it. The gift of God is eternal life, 
through Jesus Christ our Lord. And the 
thing to do with a gift is to take it, not to 
be constantly praying that you may have it. 
* He that believeth on the Son hath everlast- 
ing life.* " Yes, the thing to do with a gift 
is to take it. And what is true of God's 
great gift of salvation is true of all His other 
great gifts in Christ, which gifts are yielded 



252 Gleams from Paul's Prison, 

for the nurture of the life which has been 
saved. But we too much pray only, and do 
not dare to take, and so imagine our prayers 
unanswered. Let us dare to take, reverently 
but really. And we shall find ourselves so 
rich in surprising spiritual treasure that it 
shall be a thing spontaneous to Rejoice in 
the Lord. 

Our faithless, meagre lives are the winters 
which kill our joys. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE GREAT EXCHANGE. 

A S I have read descriptions of it, I have 
-^-^ come to understand that there has 
been never fashioned in material form a 
representation so perfect — at once so sweet 
and grand, so august and at the same time 
so welcoming — of Him who bore our griefs 
and carried our sorrows and hung upon the 
cross for our redemption, as is that marble 
statue of the Christ by Thorwaldsen, stand- 
ing there in the metropolitan church of 
Copenhagen, the capital of the artist's native 
land. Men say, who have seen it, that it is 
as though from the still marble there 
streamed down upon them, in concentrated 
ray, the Whole of the gracious light of the 
Gospel story. No other hands touched that 
statue save the artist's own. The prelimi- 
nary sketches for it filled a long time with 
the most consuming toil, and so many were 

(253) 



254 Gleams from PauVs Prison. 

destroyed as utterly unworthy, that the 
artist often quite despaired of in the least 
actualizing his ideal. But when at last the 
exquisite and eluding conception was caught 
and imprisoned in the marble, we are told 
that deepest melancholy like the midnight 
settled down on Thorwaldsen. Being asked 
the reason, he touchingly replied, "My 
genius is decaying." " What do you mean t '' 
said the visitor. "Why,'* the great sculptor 
replied, "here is my statue of Christ ; it is 
the first of my works I have ever felt satis- 
fied with. Till now, my idea has always 
been far beyond what I could execute. But 
it is no longer so. I shall never have a great 
idea again." 

The incident is most suggestive and sig- 
nificant of the relation in which Christ must 
stand to every man who gains Him. Christ 
must stand to the man in such relation and 
will in no other. Here was this great artist, 
who had given, that he might gain and body 
forth a measurably true conception of the 
Christ, all his time and genius and painfully- 
acquired skill — everything it was possible 



The Great Exchange, 255 

for even so great a man as he to give. In 
return he had achieved, at least in some de- 
gree, his mighty purpose. But in that 
achievement he had exhausted himself. In 
that vast accomplishing his powers had 
pushed to their utmost bloom. Now there 
was the blight of decay upon them. Toward 
any other purpose, for any other work, he 
had not now to give what he had given that. 
In the realm of art he had done what Paul 
says he had done in the realm of the spirit 
— he had counted all things but refuse that 
he might gain Christ.* And neither in the 
realm of art, nor in any realm other, can 
any man gain Christ in any different way. 
Christ must stand to men in this relation of 
paying everything for the sake of Him or 
He will stand in none. Christ must be the 
most w^orthy, the most precious, the most 
overmastering person and possession for any 
man or that man can not gain Christ. 

You remember how Jesus spoke once a 
parable. He said — Again, the Kingdom of 
Heaven is like unto a merchantman seeking 

* Philippians iii. 9. 



256 Gleams from PaitVs Prison. 

goodly pearls : who, when he had found one 
pearl of great price, went and sold all that 
he had, and bought it.* For the one pearl, 
large, rare, round, lustrous, the paragon of 
pearls, everything else was bartered. For 
one thing multitudes of things were yielded. 
And the man was rich in the possession of 
the one thing, though, to gain it, he had to 
yield the many. And for that merchantman 
there was no other way of gaining the su- 
preme thing than to yield the many lower 
things. 

What is parable at the forty-fifth and 
forty-sixth verses of the thirteenth^ chapter 
of Matthew, is veritable and personal trans- 
action from the second to the ninth verses 
of the third chapter of the Epistle to the 
Philippians. We reach here in these verses 
a most precious autobiographical passage. 
The great Apostle here discloses to us his 
own personal experience. He tells us here 
hov\^ he is the merchantman selling all that 
he had, and buying the one pearl of great 
price. He tells us here how he is a man com- 

'•^ MaUhew xiii. 45, 46. 



The Great Exchange, 257 

ing into the only possible real relation with 
Christ. That I may gain Christ, he says, I 
yield such things. The New Version brings 
out more clearly than the Old the idea of 
exchange of other things for Christ, of a 
supreme and solemn barter of other things 
for Him — which is the vertebral thought of 
the entire passage. Let us read according 
to the New Version : 

Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, be- 
ware of the concision : for we are the circumcision 
who worship by the Spirit of God, and glory in Christ 
Jesus, and have no coniidence in the flesh : though I 
myself might have confidence even in the flesh : if any 
other man thinketh to have confidence in the flesh, I 
yet more : circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of 
Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of He- 
brews ; as touching the law, a Pharisee ; as touching 
zeal, persecuting the church ; as touching the right- 
eousness which is in the law, found blameless. How- 
beit what things were gain to me, these have 1 counted 
loss for Christ. Yea verily, and I count all things to 
be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ 
Jesus my Lord : for whom I suffered the loss of all 
things, and do count them but dung, that I may gain 
Christ.* 



* Philippians iii. 2, 8. 
17 



258 Gleams from Paul's Prison. 

This, then, is our question. In the light 
of this Scripture, What things must a man 
yield in order that he may gain Christ ? 

In order that he may gain Christ one 
must yield the co?npanio?iship of evil men. 

Beware of the dogs, says the Apostle to 
these Philippians in the second verse of 
this third chapter. In the religious use of 
that day the epithet meant profane, impure 
shameless people. There were enough of 
such around this struggling infant church. 
I am sure I am not straining Scripture when 
I say that one meaning of the Apostle here 
— and a meaning very practical to us — is 
that if we would gain Christ we must be- 
ware of companionship with the evil. And 
this bewaring is to be very stringent ; we 
are to beware in the sense of absolutely 
withdrawing our own companionship. You 
remember how the first Psalm sings of the 
safe life. Blessed is the man — who is a 
pleasant fellow, who is hail fellow well met 
with everybody, who is so open to the 
breezes of companionship blowing from 



The Great Exchange. 259 

every quarter, that he is, in the language of 
the street, a jolly soul ? Does the first 
Psalm sing its benediction over such ? Not 
so. Blessed is the man that walketh not in 
the counsel of the ungodly ; nor standeth 
in the way of sinners ; nor sitteth in the 
seat of the scornful. Blessed is the man 
who does not allov\r himself even on the' 
fringe of a bad companionship. He does 
not even take a walk with such — for he 
knows the truth which the Psalm suggests, 
that walking with such is the door into 
standing with such, into the loitering, tarry- 
ing in the way of such ; and that companion- 
ship is not apt to be a thing of the hall-way 
of a house ; rather door opens on into door ; 
and the next apartment to standing in the 
way of sinners, is sitting in the seat of the 
scornful. He who will not, in the first 
place, walk with such, will not be very apt 
at last to find himself sitting on confidential 
seats with such. You may call that man 
puritanic and strait-laced and bigoted, you 
may fling at him what hard names you- 
choose. But the first Psalm calls him 



26o Gleams from Paul's Prison, 

Blessed, The truth is — and here is a truth 
vital for younger people as well as older — 
that there is no force more magnetic and 
interpenetrating and assimilating than that 
of companionship. There are companion- 
ships the breath of whose atmosphere is a 
moral tonic and inspiration. There are 
other companionships which are like the 
fire-damp in wells and mines. There is 
nothing in them for the lungs of a pure and 
righteous living to breathe. The better 
purposes, the old hearthstone truths of God 
and duty, the celestial suggestions of a 
mother's prayers, the steady principles of a 
father's counsels, the plans of noble action 
which a man forms in his holier hours, are 
at their last gasp in this carbonic acid of a 
bad companionship. Hungry is the heart 
of the stranger, I know, for some compan- 
ionship in the great city ; desolate is the 
little hall bedroom, and dim its lights and 
chill its air ; plentiful, I know, too, are the 
dogs of evil luring at every street corner, 
and flaunting their glare and welcome in the 
lecherous play-house. But, young man, the 



The Great Exchange, 261 

bitterest solitude is richer than companion- 
ships with these. 

Here is a young man or woman drifting 
toward the mystery and the might of love. 
AVell, that is right, if they are drifting to- 
ward truth and nobleness and purity. But 
if, as in some quiet hour the one or the other 
thinks over the effect of that companion- 
ship, feels conscious that because of it the 
moral tone is lowered — that his gay, care- 
less, sensual, scoffing words are disintegrat- 
ing to her moral sense ; or her pretty but 
frothy frivolities are honeycombing his best 
and manly purposes — then, even though 
you may think it severe, let me utter the 
Apostle's warning, Beware of the dogs. Bad 
companionships must be yielded — if you 
would gain Christ. You can not find Him, 
the pure, the sweet, the gracious, the divine- 
ly true, there. If you would gain Him, you 
may not be in these. 

Also, in order that one may gain Christ, 
one must yield the listening to evil teachers. 
Beware of the evil workers, says the Apos- 



262 Gleams from PaicVs Prison. 

tie again to these Philippians in this second 
verse. The word refers primarily to those 
who seek to propagate their evil, and so means 
those who have set themselves to teaching 
it. And there were many such among and 
around this infant and struggling church. 
As bloodhounds track their prey, so were 
the feet of the Apostle tracked by evil 
teachers ; who, following after him, sought 
to subvert the tender converts he had made 
from the broad, grand, simple Gospel he 
had preached. Not still as a lake in sum- 
mer when the winds are whist, was that first 
and early and Apostolic era. Not so warm 
and genial with the gracious airs of brother- 
hood as we are apt to think it — touched and 
fascinated as we are by the blue haze of dis- 
tance which wraps it round. Not the best 
age of the Church was that first age. The 
golden age of Christianity is ahead. It is 
not behind. But stormy and bitter with a 
great controversy Vv^as that early time. 
Paul said, Christ — He is the chief thing and 
the one thing, and faith in Him alone is the 
saving thing. His opponents said, Christ — 



The Great Exchange, 263 

ajid Moses and the ceremonial law and cir- 
cumcision and various ritual ; Christ some, 
and these a good deal too — ^Christ some, 
and these more. 

Beware of such, cries Paul — these evil 
workers, these evil teachers. Christ stands 
in Divine and royal supremacy. Christ is 
the only Saviour. He is the Sun ; think 
not to light yourselves through the glooms 
of life and death and judgment by the flick- 
ering human torches which these badly- 
working teachers would put into 3^our hands. 
Beware of them. 

And, while the method of the controversy 
has somewhat changed, the principle of the 
controversy remains. 

There are Romanists who tell us a little 
of Christ — but more of membership in the 
one only Church, and an authoritative 
priesthood, and saving sacraments, and in- 
numerable mummeries. 

There are High-Church Ritualists who 
tell us possibly a little more of Christ — but 
more than of Him, of baptismal regenera- 
tions and the real presence of the altar and 
the necessity of ritualistic forms. 



264 Gleams from PauVs Prison, 

And then, on the other hand, there are 
Liberals, as they call themselves — who tell 
us nothing of Christ as a Divine Saviour — 
but speak of Him only as the ideal man, 
and bid us by our own endeavors work out 
our own atonement. 

And then, in addition, there are still 
others, Rationalists and Scoffers, who tell 
us that possibly Christ may stand on a level 
with Plato or with Socrates, but by no means 
higher ; that nature is God, that sin is only 
ignorance, and that how we may be saved is 
the foolishest of questions. 

And, concerning all of them, the Apostle 
thunders out — Beware of the evil workers. 
Such teachers are neither to be followed 
nor trusted in. They can not lead you into 
gaining Christ. However splendid may be 
their pomp of ritual, however fascinating or 
learned or, as men call it, original they may 
be — they obscure Christ ; and He is the 
only Hope and Saviour. To gain Christ 
one must yield these. 

Also, that one may gain Christ, he must 



The Great Exchange. 265 

yi^d had doctrine. Beware of the concision, 
says Paul again to these Philippians in this 
second verse. This concision was the sym- 
bol and expression of the bad doctrine 
which these evil teachers preached. They 
were great sticklers for circumcision — a 
merely external rite. They said, Christ's 
power to save is limited by the want of that. 
They valued more their submission to such 
outward observance than spiritual and vital 
faith in Christ. And Paul speaks of this 
merely outward ceremony with a noble and 
satirizing scorn. He will not dignify it by 
its true name. He calls it derisively the 
concision — the cutting, the mutilation. And 
he says, in effect, beware of the bad doctrine 
underlying it. 

There are some who say it makes no dif- 
ference what you believe, provided only you 
are earnest in it. There are others who say 
a man is not responsible for his beliefs. 
Paul never said— the entire Bible never says 
— a thing so supremely foolish. The truth 
is doctrine — belief is the seed out of which 
life blooms. And you can not get lives of 



266 Gleams from Paul's Prison. 

roses out of seeds of nightshade. Error is 
not the seed of truth, and can not be. And 
a bad doctrine about Christ can not bring 
you into gaining Christ. And your earnest- 
ness in a bad doctrine will not, because you 
are earnest in it, any the quicker bring you 
to the truth. And what doctrine soever 
obscures Christ, lowers Him, uncrowns 
Him, puts Him out of position as the sole 
and sufficient Saviour, marries works to 
Him or rites to Him, as possessing with 
Him saving efficacy — as this doctrine of the 
concision did — is bad doctrine, though it be 
enshrined in the most venerable of creeds 
and professed by the most ancient of 
churches. And of that — responsible for 
your beliefs, and sure that your earnestness 
in a lie can not make of it a truth — you are 
to beware. If one would gain Christ, he 
must yield bad doctrine. 

Also, if one would gain Christ, he must 
yield all things whatsoever as grounds of salva- 
tion ; he must be the inerchantman selling all 
for the sake of the one most precious and 



The Great Exchange, 267 

most costly pearl. Notice, in the eighth 
verse of this section — Yea verily, and I 
count all things to be loss for the excellency 
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord ; 
for whom I suffered the loss of all things, 
and do count them but dung that I may 
gain Christ. 

But wait a moment, Paul — that is a most 
extraordinary and sweeping statement. Are 
you not very rash and very sweeping too ? 
You have been talking about bad compan- 
ionships and bad teachers and bad doctrine, 
and I grant you that these, and things like 
these, must be yielded in order that one may 
gain the sweet, pure Christ ; but you have 
said that you count all things as refuse for 
the sake of Him. And do you not know that 
you possess a great many right and morally 
valuable things ? You can not mean that, 
in order to gain Christ, one must yield as 
grounds of saving hope such things as 
these.— Let me particularize a little. 

You were circumcised the eighth day — 
you were circumcised in the right way and 
at the right time ; you possess the true and 



268 Gleams from Paul 's Prison. 



proper ceremonial qualification ; if you were 
living in my day, I should say, as you doubt- 
less would were you living now — that you 
had been baptized in the right fashion and 
were a professing Christian and a member 
of the church. Do you mean to say that as 
a ground of salvation that amounts to noth- 
ing, and that if a man do not gain Christ 
he will miss everything though he have 
these things ? And Paul answers — Yea 
veril}^^ and I count all things to be loss for 
the excellency of the knowledge of Christ 
Jesus my Lord. 

But, see here, Paul — you have something 
more. They make a great deal of the 
law of heredity now — the culture of it, 
and the impulse of the pure, grand gen- 
erations back of him, giving noble stuff 
and stamina to a man ; and you are a mag- 
nificent specimen of the value and validity 
of the law of heredity. You are of the stock 
of Israel, you are of the tribe of Benjamin, 
one of the best tribes in the whole company 
of them — who belonged to the true Israel 
and did not go into rebellion against the 



The Great Exchange, 269 

son of Solomon under the banners of Jero- 
boam ; and besides, your blood is perfectly 
pure, you are a Hebrew of the Hebrews. Do 
you mean to say that that as a ground of 
salvation is to be accounted nothing in com- 
parison with Christ, and that a man who 
trusts in heredity and. not in Christ trusts in 
vacancy ? And I am sure Paul would an- 
swer — for the Bible so declares — that this 
law of heredity is a most great and precious 
thing, and that a high, pure ancestry is one 
of the best gifts with which God can bless 
a man — it means better health and better 
moral forces, and ten thousand subtle and 
valuable endowments. But as a ground of 
salvation as compared with personal and 
vital knowledge of Christ, Paul still replies 
— Yea verily, and I count all things to be 
loss for the excellency of the knowledge of 
Christ Jesus my Lord. 

But, then, O Paul, see here again — you 
possess something else most valuable. You 
were not sacrilegious, like King Saul, when 
he offered the sacrifices he had no right to ; 
you were not idolatrous, like the Israelites, 



2 JO Gleams from PauV s Pi'ison. 

when they danced around the golden calf in 
the wilderness ; you were not murderous 
and timid and sensual, like Ahab. As touch- 
ing the law you were a Pharisee, as touch- 
ing the righteousness which is in the law 
you w^ere found blameless ; you were a white 
.and moral and decent and punctilious man. 
— Now, do you mean to say that all this 
sweet morality of yours, as a ground of sal- 
vation, goes for nothing in comparison with 
Christ ? do you mean to say that you can 
trust that not at all, but that, notwithstand- 
ing that, and giving up trust in that, you 
must trust Christ altogether if you would 
gain Him? And Paul, in answer, will by 
no means avow the monstrous maxim that 
the greater the sinner, the greater the saint ; 
but he will say, I had not known sin but by 
the law^ — he will say that when he began to 
see how searching, how thought-judging, 
how motive-touching that law was, how like 
a two-edged sword it cut between the joints 
and the marrow, laying bare the thoughts 
and intents of the heart — that then he dis- 
covered, to his surprise and horror and 



The Great Exchange, 271 

despair, how Ihtle in the eye of God of a 
real dense righteousness — as to thought, as 
to imagination, as to motive, as to pure vo- 
lition, that external blamelessness possess- 
ed ; — and so he will answer again — Yea 
verily, and I count all things to be loss for 
the excellency of the knowledge of Christ 
Jesus my Lord. 

But, see here, just once more, O Apostle- 
there is one other moral possession of yours 
I have not spoken of. You were a most 
conscientious man. You obeyed your con- 
science. You thought verily that those of 
that sort should be given over to prison and 
to death — Concerning zeal, you persecuted 
the church. Now, granting that your con- 
science was mistaken, you yet were consci- 
entiously mistaken — you did the very best 
you knew. Now, can you not trust to that 
pure conscientiousness of yours as a ground 
of salvation ? Surely you need not yield 
that, that you may gain Christ. And Paul 
answers — It is impossible for me to find 
hope and healing there ; that is to me the 
worst sin on me. For, while I did not know, 



2/2 Gleams from PaiiVs Prison, 

and so went on in the way*of a mistaken 
conscience — I ought to have known, I had light 
enough — the whole old Scripture was full of 
Christ had I but seen it ; but I would not 
see it. Talk not to me of trust in conscience 
as compared with trust in Christ ; I never 
knew right conscience till I saw the light of 
Christ. And so, once again the same old 
answer comes from this merchantman sell- 
ing all, that he may purchase the one pearl 
of great price — Yea verily, and I count all 
things to be loss for the excellency of the 
knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord ; for 
whom I have suffered the loss of all things, 
and do count them but dung that / 7nay gain 
Christ, 

And so, the plain teaching of this whole 
great section is, that we must turn from 
everything bad, and — as a ground and rea- 
son for salvation — yield everything, how 
good soever in our eyes it may seem as 
well, that we may gain Christ. Christ is all 
to us, or He is nothing to us. His must be 
an absolutely unshared throne. As the 
hymn has it — 



The Great Exchange, 273 

** My hope is built on nothing less 
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness ; 

When all around my soul gives way, 
He then is all my hope and stay. 

On Christ, the solid rock, I stand ; 

All other ground is sinking sand."* 

Such things must one yield if he would 
gain Christ — even everything. Such is the 
price of the Great Pearl. 

Said one of the purest of men, most 
shining of scholars, and widest of thinkers, 
and vv^ho. had devoted a long life to the best 
good of his fellow-men — said he — lying 
there amid the death shadows and waiting 
for the end, and confronted by eternity, and 
counting up the grounds of confidence on 
which he might rest his soul and risk his 
immortal destiny — said he — everything else 
failing him, everything else, under the 
pressure of that time to which you and I 
must come at last, breaking beneath him, as 
a straw would snap under the weight of a 



* Edward Mote, 1825. 
18 



2/4 Gleams from Paul's Prison, 

leviathan — said he, "We have the Blood of 
Christ."* That held. No fear, no sin 
could break that down. Only that can sus- 
tain an immortal soul. 

Have you been, like Paul, the merchant- 
man selling all, that you might possess the 
Pearl of Great Price ? O, in all your mer- 
chandizing, neglect not to merchandize 
toward Him. 



* Death of Schleiermacher, ** Discourses and Essays," 
Dr. Shedd, p. 313. 



CHAPTER XI. 

GIFTS IN CHRIST. 

WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY 
carried the manuscript of his " Vanity 
Fair" — which the world has come to recog- 
nize as a marvellous literary treasure— -to 
nearly twenty different publishers, before it 
was at last and gingerly accepted. Char- 
lotte Bronte, working her life into that 
great story of "Jane Eyre/' and producing 
a masterpiece, had a similar experience of 
difficulty and denial. That, among the 
grandest histories of these later times- — that 
magnificent narrative of as brave a struggle 
as the sun ever shone on — between William 
the Silent and his Protestant Dutchmen, 
crowded into the sea-drenched corner of 
Holland, and the Romanist and malignant 
Philip the Second of Spain, master of half 
Europe, and of half America as well — that 

(275) 



2/6 Gleams from Paul's Prison, 

wonderful recital of this struggle and tri- 
umph, Mr. Motley's " History of the Rise of 
the Dutch Republic," when it was first seek- 
ing publication, was declined. That song 
of oppressed labor, which has been in itself 
a moral reform, and whose wailing notes 
we, even in these days of sewing-machines, 
would do well to heed — 

** With fingers weary and worn, 

With eyelids heavy and red, 
A woman sits, in unwomanly rags, 

Plying her needle and thread ; 
Stitch, stitch, stitch, 

In poverty, hunger, and dirt, 
And still, with a voice of dolorous pitch, 

She sings the Song of the Shirt," — 

Tom Hood's ** Song of the Shirt," was 
thrown, when it was first presented for pub- 
lication, as good for nothing, into the waste- 
basket. Milton's mighty epic was sold in 
the first place, and with difficulty, for a poor 
and pitable five pounds. Often the best 
gifts to the world have been by the world 
the gifts most unappreciated. 

Most emphatically has this been true of 



Gifts in Chi'ist, 277 

God's utmost Gift to the world, His Divine 
Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 
To how many has He seemed but as a root 
out of dry ground, without form or comeli- 
ness, and with no beauty that we should de- 
sire Him ! 

The question for this chapter is — Is He 
really thus ? 

In the preceding chapter we were think- 
ing of the cost of the Pearl of Great Price ; 
of the merchantman in the person of the 
Apostle selling all that he might gain pos- 
session of it. We heard him exclaiming 
over ond over again— -Yea verily, and I count 
all things to be loss for the excellency of 
the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. 

The question now is. What did the Apostle 
gain in Christ^ Getting the Pearl, did the 
Pearl mean much to him ? was it worth the 
price he paid ? 

Look into this Scripture, and behold 
Paul's answer : 

And be found in Him, not having a righteousness 
of mine own, even that which is of the law, but that 
which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness 



278 Gleams from Paul's Prison. 

which is from God by faith: that I may know Him 
and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship 
of His sufferings, becoming conformed unto His 
death ; if by any means I may attain unto the resur- 
rection from the dead.* 

In this Scripture Paul goes on to tell 
what, in gaining Christ, he gained in Him. 
He enumerates six things. Giving all that 
he might gain Christ, he tells us that in 
Christ he received these most precious 
treasures : — ist, Security — ^and be found in 
Him. 2d, Righteousness — not having a 
righteousness of mine own, even that which 
is of the law, but that which is through faith 
in Christ, the righteousness which is from 
God by faith. 3d, Intimacy — ^that I may 
know Him. 4th, Power — and the power of 
His resurrection. 5th, Inward Purity- — and 
the fellowship of His sufferings, becoming 
conformedunto His death. 6th, Victory — if 
by any means I may attain unto the resur- 
rection from the dead. 

They are such treasures, which from the 



* Philippians iii. 9, il, Revised Version, 



Gifts in Christ, 279 

Pearl of Great Price gleam out. In selling 
all that he might gain Christ, Paul received 
such Gifts in Christ. Let us study their 
value one by one. 

.First, In gaining Christ Paul received 
Security — And be found in Him. 

Let me tell you an Old Testament story, 
that I may bring out the significance of this 
great Gift in Christ as shiningly as I can. 
You will remember that after that disastrous 
conflict in the plain of Esdraelon with the 
Philistines, Saul, the king, was slain upon 
the heights of Gilboa. You will remember 
that David was afterward crowned king at 
Hebron. You will remember that Ishbo- 
sheth, the son of Saul, refusing to submit to 
David, set up a rival kingdom, the official 
city of which was Mahanaim. You v/ill re- 
member that then, as was natural, and for 
a good while, there was clash and contest 
between the rival kingdoms. But David 
waxed stronger and stronger, and the house 
of Saul waxed weaker and weaker. At length 
Ishbosheth, the rival king, was slain, the 



2 8o Gleams from PaitVs Prison. 

sceptre of his house was broken, and David 
became unchallenged master. You will re- 
member also the tender love which, in the 
vanished years, had bound together the 
souls of David and of Jonathan, the son of 
Saul. Jonathan had met his death, but 
David's love for him was immortal. So, 
when the crash of war had ceased, and 
David was settled on the throne the Lord 
had promised him, and as consecration for 
which, way back in the years of his boyhood, 
the prophet Samuel had poured the sacred 
oil upon his head, David, with the love for 
Jonathan still burning in his heart — looking 
anxiously around, inquires, Is there yet any 
that is left of the house of Saul that I may 
show him kindness for Jonathan's sake 2^ 
And then at last it is found out that there is 
a man living who is a son of Jonathan, 
Mephibosheth by name. 

But Mephibosheth is by no means a per- 
fect person. He is a halting cripple. Long 
ago, when he was but five years old, and the 
news came of the tragic overthrow and 



* 2 Samuel ix. i, 



Gifts in Christ. 281 

death of Jonathan and Saul in Jezreel, in her 
fright his nurse had caught him up and 
sped away. In her fright, too, she had 
dropped him, and thenceforth he had been 
maimed and lame/^ But he was Jonathan's 
son still, and, as though found in Jonathan, 
David looked upon him. His relationship 
to Jonathan, poor, lame creature though he 
were, made him in David's sight worthy of 
love and confidence and protection. In 
himself he possessed no special claim on 
David. But, looked at as the son of his 
best friend, and so found in Jonathan, he 
was armed with the most grasping claims 
on David's heart. So, found in Jonathan, 
no harm should come to him if the might 
of David's kingly hand could hinder it. 
The confiscated personal patrimony of his 
father's house was at once restored to him ; 
and thenceforth, as one of the king's most 
favored and cherished and protected sons, 
he was to eat at the royal table. And not 
because of anything in himself, you see, but 
simply because in David's sight he was 

* 2 Samuel iv. 4. 



282 Gleams from PatiVs Prison. 

found m Jonathan did all this security and 
welcome and blessing fall round Mephi- 
bosheth like the curtains of a guarding 
tent. 

Which things are a parable. So Paul, 
giving all for Christ, is found in Christ, 
Coming by faith into such intimate relation 
with Him, henceforth by the eye of God he 
is seen to be in Christ. Maimed he may be 
and a cripple morally through many a fall 
and wreck of sin, but he is in Christ as 
Mephibosheth was in Jonathan, and all the 
might of Jehovah's infinite hand is pledged 
to his defence. Even as Paul, wrapped 
round by this Divine security, flings out his 
challenge — Who shall separate us from the 
love of Christ ? Shall tribulation, or dis- 
tress, or persecution, or famine, or naked- 
ness, or peril, or sword ? Nay, in all these 
things we are more than conquerors through 
him that loved us. For I am persuaded, 
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor 
principalities, nor powers,, nor things pres- 
ent, nor things to corhe, nor height, nor 
depth, nor any other creature, shall be able 



Gifts in Christ, 283 

to separate us from the love of God, which 
is in Christ Jesus our Lord.* 

Second. In gaining Christ, Paul received 
in Christ Righteousness — not having a right- 
eousness of mine own, even that of the law, 
but that which is through faith in Christ, 
the righteousness which is from God by 
faith. 

Mark two things concerning the old right- 
eousness which Paul discards : 

I St. // is his own — not having a righteous- 
ness of mine own ; one's own is the only- 
poor apology for righteousness which any 
morally maimed and crippled man can of 
himself win. 

2d. // came of the law — ^not having a right- 
eousness of mine own, even that which is of 
the law. But before the awful severity of 
the law it could not be esteemed as any 
righteousness at all ; for the only answer 
which can satisfy the law is that of an exact 
obedience, both external as to deed and in- 



* Romans viii 35, 37, 39. 



284 Gleams from PauVs Prison, 

ternal as to motive ; and that Paul neither 
had rendered nor, indeed, could he. 

Mark three things concerning the new 
righteousness which Paul receives in 
Christ : 

I St. // is through faith^ not through works 
of merit — that righteousness which is 
through faith ; it is not won by doing, it is 
received through believing. 

2d. It is through believing in Christ — that 
righteousness which is through faith in 
Christ ; one has not to win it ; to receive it 
one has but to believe in Christ with an all- 
consecrating faith. 

3d. It is from God — the righteousness 
which is from God by faith ; it is a righte- 
ousness originating from God and therefore 
sufficient— indorsed and approved by Him.* 

There, on the Palatine Hill at Rome, I have 
waited amid what remains of the ancient 
Basilica or Hall of Justice of the Emperors. 
There, on the raised and rounded apse, is 
standing still a portion of the marble chair 



* Cowles* ** Shorter Epistles," in loco. 



Gifts in Christ, 285 

in which the Emperor sat, when from 
his lips there fell the final sentence of 
his court of last appeal. Here, set amid 
the marble floor of that great court of last 
appeal, is a round and purple stone, on 
which the accused stood to listen to that 
culminating sentence of weal or woe. It 
is not at all unlikely that that very purple 
stone was pressed by the feet of the great 
Apostle to the Gentiles. For doubtless 
here, within this most ancient and most 
awful Hall of Justice, in which were 
sounded forth the sentences of last appeal, 
Paul heard, not many years after the writing 
of this Epistle to the Philippicns, the closing 
adjudication of his case uttered from that 
marble chair — condemno, I condemn thee — 
and was led forth to martyrdom. But at that 
very moment when that final condemno struck 
upon his ear, Paul, lifting his thought to 
another tribunal infinitely more awful, and 
before which he was so soon to stand, might 
be sure of the going forth of another and 
reversing sentence — for often the decisions 
of the courts of earth are set aside by the 



286 Gleams from Paul's Prison. 

decision of the court of Heaven — Paul might 
be sure that at that moment there went forth 
from that Supreme Judgment Seat another 
sentence altogether — namely, non con- 
DEMNO, I condemn thee not. For he had 
gained Christ, and in gaining Christ had re- 
ceived in Him this righteousness which is 
from God by faith — this perfect righteous- 
ness outwrought by Christ in our human 
nature for all believers. And, a condemned 
criminal here, he was a triumphantly vindi- 
cated and saved soul there. For not even 
that all-searching and all-holy and all-dom- 
inating tribunal can discover fault or flaw 
in the righteousness of Christ. 

Third. In gaining Christ, Paul had re- 
ceived in Christ Inti??iacy — that I may know 
Him. 

In one of the most marvellous and prec- 
ious books in any literature — Hawthorne's 
" Marble Faun ** — there is a touch of nature 
at once most closely true and at the same time 
most sadly false. The scene of the story, you 
know, is laid in Rome ; and Hilda, the hero- 



Gifts in Christ. 287 

ine, is a soul as white as any lily. There 
has been a most foul and awful deed com- 
mitted, such as were not uncommon there 
under Papal rule, and the knowledge of it 
has come to her. She can not, for various 
reasons, divulge it ; but the knowledge of 
the hideous thing presses down upon her 
white and tender soul like a horrid and soil- 
ing incubus. She is in agony. Where can 
she turn for help .^ Her soul faints. The 
awful thing will kill her. At last, one day, 
she is waiting beneath the springing dome 
of the great church of St. Peter. She sees 
yonder a confessional for English-speaking 
people. She is no Romanist, but, pressed 
by her distress, she will fly with her awful 
secret there, and, amid the sanctity and 
secrecy of the confessional, will divulge it 
all. True the touch of nature is, and at the 
same time false. True in this respect, that 
the heart of man is cavernous with hunger 
for some strong, true, tender person into 
whose ear,* and into whose sacred confidence 
as well, it may tell forth its wants and woes, 
its struggles, its burdens, its distresses. 



288 Gleams from PanVs Prison. 

False is the painting of the artistes pencil in 
this respect — that he makes the food and 
satisfaction of that hunger a poor, fallible, 
sinning, helpless man, though he sit dressed 
in the tinsel and unmeaning authority of a 
Roman confessional. No, the real. food and 
satisfaction of such hunger is the Person 
Christy His Divine-human Heart is the true 
confessional. He is sympathetic with a ver- 
itable human experience, and at the same 
time powerful with Divinity. And the 
treasure of His Intimacy He opens for those 
who trust Him. ^Jot afar is He, but near : 
and their whispered confidences He keeps, 
and to bruised and burdened hearts He 
dispenses triumphant help and healing. 

Fourth. In gaining Christ, Paul received 
in Christ Power — and the power of His 
resurrection. 

Not enough, I am sure, do we think of 
and prize that whole side and style of 
Divine blessing which comes to men from 
the tremendous fact that our Christ did not 
remain dead, but in the Resurrection rose 



Gifts in Christ, 289 

victor over death. For the great need of 
all men, weakened and emasculated as they 
are by sin, is not simply precept, but is also 
power — is not only that they be told what 
to do, but that they be given strength to 
do. 

Hartley Coleridge — the son of the great 
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and inheriting 
from his great father the moral blight of a 
weakened and vicious will, and giving him- 
self over into the grip of the destroying ap- 
petite for drink— Hartley Coleridge wrote 
in his later years these sad and pathetic 
lines on the fly-leaf of his Bible : 

" When I received this volume small, 
My years were barely seventeen, 
When it was hoped I should be all 
Which once, alas ! I might have been. 

' ' And now my years are thirty-five ; 
And every mother hopes her Iamb, 
And every happy child alive, 
May neverho, what now I am." 

Hartley Coleridge knew well enough 
what he ought — even amid the fearful 
19 



290 Gleams from PauVs Prison. 

wreck of his last years he knew it. What 
Hartley Coleridge needed was strength— 2, 
girded will, that he might do what he knew 
he ought. 

Consider that this is the immense distinc- 
tion between the religion of Christ and 
every other religion which has ever asked 
for the suffrages of human souls. 

The religion of Confucius is a religion of 
precept. It teaches some very beautiful 
and righteous things. But Confucius was 
dead long ago. And there is no vital and 
conquering and interpenetrating power in 
Confucius to enable men to do that which 
his precepts teach. 

The religion of the wonderful East Indian 
Sakya-Muni is a religion of precept. It 
teaches some very beautiful and righteous 
things. But Sakya-Muni was dead long 
ago, and there is no vital and conquering 
and interpenetrating power in Sakya-Muni 
to enable men to do that which his precepts 
teach. 

The religion of Jesus Christ is a religion 
of precept. It teaches the right and the 






Gifts in Christ. 291 

beautiful things. It is the truth. But our 
Lord Christ is not dead long ago. He died, 
but He rose again. He is to-day the living 
Christ. And as by His atoning death He 
opened a way for sinful men into the Divine 
forgiveness, so by His glorious Resurrection 
and Ascension He dispenses power to for- 
given men, enabling them veritably to do 
that which forgiven men ought in their new 
and forgiven life to do. 

Here is an immense difference — this whole 
difference of a real and imparted power. 
Paul not only knew that he ought to be 
greater than the changing vicissitudes of 
outward circumstances, but from this risen 
and living Christ he received power to be 
greater. And so he says — I know both how 
to be abased, and I know how to abound : 
everywhere and in all things I am instructed 
both to be full and to be hungry, both to 
abound and to suffer need. I can do all 
things through Christ which strengtheneth 
me.* 



Philippians iv. 12, 13. 



292 Gleams from PaicVs Prison, 

Paul not only knew that he ought not to 
be vanquished from his loyalty to truth by 
menacing danger, but from this risen and 
living Christ he received /^zc/^r triumphing. 
And so he says — At my first answer no man 
stood with me, but all men forsook me : I 
pray God that it may not be laid to their 
charge. Notwithstanding the Lord stood 
with me and strengthened me ; and I was 
delivered out of the mouth of the lion. And 
the Lord shall deliver m.e from every evil 
work, and will preserve me unto His 
heavenly kingdom :. to whom be glory for- 
ever and ever. Amen.* 

Paul not only knew that he needed and 
must suffer discipline, but from this risen 
and living Christ he received power to suffer 
it in a grand, soul-helping way. And so he 
says about that thorn in the flesh — Most 
gladly therefore will I rather glory in my 
infirmities, that the power of Christ may 
rest upon me. For when I am weak, then 
am I stroag.f 

* 2 Timothy iv. 16, 18. 
\ 2 Corinthians xii. g, 10. 



Gifts in Christ. 293 

This, I am sure, is one of the things Paul 
meant when he talks about having gained 
Christ, and of getting in Christ Xh^ power of 
His resurrection — namely, this power to be 
and to do which falls and flows from the 
victorious hand of a living because risen 
Christ. 

And this power is for us too, and very 
really do we all need it. 

A great many years ago, a young man in 
-an Eastern town, in one of the rooms of the 
old homestead, was packing his trunk, pre- 
paratory to starting on the morrow to begin 
life in what was then the distant West. 
While he was getting ready thus, his mother 
came into the room, and said to him, *'' My 
S4)n, you are going away from the home- 
shadow to begin life for yourself in a new 
and distant place. You will meet difficul- 
ties, you will be surrounded by temptations. 
There is one thing your mother wants to 
say to you as you go. Will you listen 
to it?" "Certainly, mother,'* the young 
man answered ; " I will gladly listen." 
*^ Well, then, my son," the mother said, "re- 



294 Gleams from Paul V Prison, 

member this, as the thing your mother told 
you — character is the best capital — charaeter 
is the best capital y And that young man 
went forth from the home-shelter determin- 
ing to build his life upon that principle. 
And he did it. And again and again, as 
the years have sped away, he has seen the 
precise truth of his mother's words. But 
should you ask him how he has been enabled, 
against difficulty and amid temptation, to 
keep on building his life on that great prin- 
ciple his mother taught him, he would tell 
you, as he has in effect told me— for I know 
him well — that the only way in which he 
was enabled to turn that precept for life into 
a fact of life, was as he prayed for and re- 
ceived from the living because risen Christ 
the poufer to do it. O, this that Paul got in 
gaining Christ— how sadly do all men need 
it — the power of His resurrection. 

Fifth. In gaining Christ, Paul also re- 
ceived in Christ Purity — and the fellowship 
of His sufferings, becoming conformed unto 
His death. Among many other meanings 



Gifts in Christ. 295 

which, doubtless, this Scripture carries, I 
think it holds this meaning — namely, that 
in gaining Christ Paul had received such 
pure and true hatred of sin, that, rather 
than sin, he would gladly have fellowship 
with Christ's sufferings, and even die as He 
had died. Christ's sufferings and death 
were because of and in contest with sin. It 
was that He might put away sin that He 
drank the cup of Gethsemane and hung 
upon the cross. And now, believing in 
Christ, there had been implanted in Paul 
by the Holy Spirit the principle of the new 
pure life, the innermost meaning of which 
was hatred of and conflict with ^n, though 
his own sufferings and death even should 
in the contest mount into some poor like- 
ness with his Lord's. He would suffer what 
pain he might or what death he might 
rather than himself do that which slew his 
Lord. And thus, if need were, he would 
enter into very fellowship with his Lord's 
sufferings, and become conformed even to 
such a death as His. 

The true Christian has received from 



296 Gleams from PauVs Prison, 

Christ the new life of Purity, and that can 
not and will not allow sinning. As Christ 
hated sin, so the true Christian hates it, even 
to the extent of suffering and death in awful 
duel with it. And the possession of this 
Purity is the real test of our possession of 
the other Gifts in Christ. For Christ came, 
not simply to save men from the punish- 
ment of sin, but from sin. And if we have 
not within ourselves this sin-hating Purity 
which feels toward sin even as Christ did, 
suffering and dying to smite it down, then, 
however we may flatter ourselves, none of 
the other Gifts in Christ are really ours. 
Alliance wTith the pure Christ means alliance 
with Him against that which He hates. 

Sixth. In gaining Christ, Paul also re- 
ceived in Christ Victory — if by any means I 
may attain unto the Resurrection from the 
dead. 

I stood, not a great while since, by the 
coffin of an aged and triumphant saint. 
After a shining life, she had passed through 
a shining and peaceful death into the better 



Gifts in Christ, 297 

brightness. And I knew, as I stood beside 
her coffin, and read the words of the Im- 
mortal Hope, I was reading what in her 
case were most true words, for she was cer- 
tainly with her Lord in Paradise. And yet, 
vast and wonderful as is the triumph she 
had already through Christ achieved, I 
knew that for her there was to be even a 
grander victory. As to her body she was 
still the thrall of death ; over that death 
held his fixed and ghastly sceptre, even 
though her released spirit was in Paradise. 
But for her there is to be loftier triumph. 
That sceptre which death sways now over 
her body is to be altogether broken. I can 
not tell you how. I do not altogether un- 
derstand what the glorious Resurrection 
from the dead can mean. I am sure it can 
not mean merely the re-emergence of this 
old, imprisoning, earthly body. It is sown 
a natural body, it is raised a spiritual bodyf^ 
But I do know that the glorious Resurrec- 
tion from the dead — the first Resurrection 



* I Corinthians xv. 44. 



298 Gleams from Paul's Prison, 

— that of which the Resurrection of our 
Lord Jesus is the type, must mean some 
surprising, sublime, inconceivably magnifi- 
cent shattering of death's sceptre, so that 
the redeemed shall shout, O death, where is 
thy sting ? O grave, where is thy victory ? * 
And the intermediate state of Paradise shall 
pass on and bloom into the consummated 
ineffable Heaven. It is such Victory of the 
first and glorious Resurrection from the | 
dead which Paul is to receive in gaining * 
Christ. And we ourselves also, if we gain 
Christ. 

Security, Righteousness, Intimacy, Power, 
Purity, Victory — is not the Pearl of Great 
Price worth having ? 



* I Corinthians xv. 55. 



CHAPTER XII. 

NOT HAVING ATTAINED. 

LET US recall the line of thought on 
which the two previous chapters have 
been threaded. 

In the tenth chapter we saw Paul, like the 
merchantman in the parable, parting with 
everything as a ground of salvation — ritual 
qualification, ancestral advantage, a. white 
morality, a strenuous conscientiousness — 
that he might gain Christ. 

In the eleventh chapter we saw the Apos- 
tlCj yielding thus everything for Christ, 
getting inestimable treasure in Christ — se- 
curity, righteousness, intimacy, power, in- 
ward purity, victory. Such values from the 
Pearl of Great Price gleam out. 

But now this thought may come — a man 
so spiritually endowed and furnished, guard- 
ed in security, shining with righteousness, 

(299) 



300 Gleams from Paul 's Prison, 

lifted into intimacy, girded with power, vig- 
orous with purity, radiant with the hope of 
victory, is he not a morally finished and per- 
fect man? He must have overpassed the 
need of contest with sinfulness and sinning. 
He must have lain aside the weapons of his 
moral warfare and taken up the trophies of 
a moral triumph — the branch of palm, the 
crown of gold, the robe of whiteness. Yield- 
ing all for Christ and gaining so much in 
Christ, he must have a personal and com- 
plete perfectness. 

And lest any one should have such a false 
thought, Paul at once goes on to give cor- 
rection to it. 

There are two ways in which you may be 
presented with a harvest — the one way in 
the fruit-form, the filled and golden grain 
gathered into the garner ; the other wky in 
the seed-form. And of course the harvest 
given you in the seed-form necessitates the 
doing on your part of a great many neces- 
sary things — the sowing and the cultivating 
and the nurturing and the constant care- 
taking and the reaping and the threshing 



Not Having Attained, 301 

and the gathering, in order that thus you 
may get the harvest, which, notwithstand- 
ing, was really given you though in seed- 
form. 

This, it seems to me, is precisely the 
meaning of what Paul hastens on to say — 
these Gifts in Christ are not given in their 
fruit-form, but are always given in their 
seed-form, and I myself have multitudes of 
strenuous things to do concerning leading 
them up into their grand fruitage. Thus 
the Apostle speaks : 

Not that I have already obtained, or am already 
made -perfect : but I press on, if so be that I may ap- 
prehend that for which also I was apprehended by 
Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself yet to 
have apprehended : but one thing I do, forgetting the 
things which are behind, and stretching forward to the 
things which are before, I press on toward the goal, 
unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ 
Jesus.* 

Three points spring at once into our 
vision : 

First, the true feeling for the Christian, 

* Philippians iii. r2, 14, Revised Version. 



302 Gleams from Paul 's Prison, 

Second, the true action for the Christian. 
Third, an immense encouragement for the 
Christian. 

First, tlien, consider the true feeling for the 
Christian. 

The true feeling for the Christian is not 
any supposition or assumption of moral 
perfectness. No Christian has any right to 
imagine that he has reached a sinless per- 
fection. Not that I have already obtained, 
or am already made perfect. 

I am sure, however, the Apostle does not 
mean we should not affirm that it is both 
possible and right and reasonable for the 
Christian to attain a very sweet and satisfy- 
ing and restful and joyful feeling of close- 
ness with God and wonderful victory in 
Him. O, how much there is now for us in 
God, of power and unruffled rest amid the 
strain and stress and fret of our daily lives, 
we too sadly little know and too sadly little 
care to know. I remember a passage in the 
life of Dr. Doddridge. He is writing to his 
wife, whom he loves tenderly — indeed, his 



I 



Not Havmg Attained, 303 

marriage was one of the ideal sort — who is 
sick and away from him. He says : 

** It may seem strange to say it, but really so it is, 
I hardly feel that I want anything. I often think of 
you and pray for you, and bless God on your account, 
and please myself with the hope of many comfortable 
days with you ; yet I am not at all anxious about your 
return, nor, indeed, about anything else. And the 
reason, the great and sufficient reason is, that I have 
more of the presence of God with me than 1 remember 
ever to have enjoyed in any one month of my life. He 
enables me to live for Him, and to live with Him. 
When I awake in the morning, which is always before 
it is light, I address myself to Him, and converse 
with Him ; speak to Him when I am lighting my can- 
dle and putting on my clothes ; and I have often 
more delight in coming out of my chamber, though it 
be hardly a quarter of an hour after my awakening, 
than I have enjoyed for whole days, or perhaps weeks, 
of my life. He meets me in my study, in secret, in 
family devotions. It is pleasant to read, pleasant to 
compose, pleasant to converse with my friends at 
home, pleasant to visit those abroad — the poor, the 
sick ; pleasant to write letters of necessary business, 
by which any good can be done ; pleasant to go out 
and preach the Gospel to poor souls who are thirsting 
for it, and others dying without it ; pleasant in the 
week-day to think how near Sabbath is ; — but oh ! 



304 Gleams from PauFs Prison, 

much, much more pleasant to think how near eternity 
is, and how short the journey through the wilderness, 
and that it is but a step from earth to heaven."* 

Such staying of the soul on God and such 
quiet peace in God it is possible for us to 
know immensely more of than we do. 
When Polycarp was martyred, he said that 
the flames which thronged him round seem- 
ed even as a sweet, cool wind, so wrapt and 
restful was his soul in God. And there is a 
transfiguring quality in God's conscious 
presence w4th us which can and ought to 
take the blistering heat and hurt out of the 
so vastly lesser and weaker flame of the 
daily disciplines of life. There is for Chris- 
tian experience here and now — not yonder 
in Heaven, but here and now — not only the 
gift of a south land — but also the springs of 
water.f 

But to reach there and to dwell there is 
one thing. And to imagine that you have 



* '* Heroes of Christian History," Philip Doddridge, 
by Charles Stanford, D.D. 
\ Joshua XV. 19. 



Not Having Aiiained, 305 

attained a sinless perfection is quite an- 
other. The one is reasonable and right and 
to be done. The other is wrong and un- 
scriptural and not to be thought of. 

This imagination of perfection in which 
some people allow themselves is not the 
true Christian feeling, because it is plainly 
unscripturaL Paul distinctly says, not that 
I have already obtained, or am already 
made perfect. 

This imagination of perfection is not the 
true Christian feeling, because, searching 
through the Scriptures from back to back, you 
can not find a single instance of it — save only 
Him, the lonely perfect One, v/ho had a 
right to challenge, Which of you convinceth 
me of sin ? * Noah was not perfect, nor was 
Job, nor was Moses, nor was David, nor was 
John, nor was Peter, nor was Paul. Noah 
was not always the master of his vineyard, 
and Job was not always faithful and sub- 
missive, and Moses was petulant, and David 



John viii. 46. 
20 



3o6 Gleams from Paul's Prison, 

wallowed in an awful slough, and John 
wanted to burn people whom he did not 
think exactly right, and Peter denied Christ 
and then in a cowardly way afterwards 
withdrew himself from his Christian breth- 
ren at Antioch, and Paul says. Not as though 
I had attained, either were already perfect. 

This imagination of perfection is not the 
true Christian feeling, because it is always 
trying itself by the wrong standard. It 
makes all the difference in the world by 
what you test things. Iron pyrites looks 
sometimes very much like gold, and, indeed, 
has often been mistaken for it. Many fool- 
ish people, seeing a little shining gleam 
scattered through the rocks, have gathered 
all the money they could themselves, and 
then impoverished their friends, to purchase 
large masses and areas of them, thinking 
that the gleam they saw was gold ; and then 
have found themselves with nothing but the 
barren rocks on hand. Iron pyrites will 
stand a great many tests as long as you do 
not try it with aqua regia. But aqua regia 



Not Having Attained, 307 

is the test for gold. Try it with that and 
you will soon discover its worthlessness. 
So this fancied perfection always fails w^hen 
you bring it to the genuine and appointed 
standard. And that is — not one's internal 
feeling about himself; it is quite possible 
for a man to feel very comfortably for many 
reasons, and yet at the same time be all 
wrong. The genuine and appointed stan- 
dard is not one's feeling about himself, his 
rapture, even his conscious victory — but is 
the external and stern and unchanging stan- 
dard of the Divine Law. 

The other summer, d^iring the vacation, I 
heard a Methodist minister preaching. It 
was a right noble, stimulating, nurturing 
sermon which he preached, in many re- 
spects ; I was very much obliged to him for 
it ; I was a better Christian for it. But in 
the respect of this notion of perfection I am 
sure it was both hurtful and false. Said he, 
putting the matter as it is so often put, ^' I 
said to Brother A.*' — who was a little doubt- 
ful about this doctrine — ^* I said to Brother 
A., one Sunday morning about nine o'clock, 



3o8 Gleams from Paul's Prisan. 

* Brother A., you have been up about three 
hours; now, do you really think that you 
have sinned during these three hours ? ' 

* Well/ answered Brother A., ' I can hardly 
say that I remember now to have distinctly 
sinned during that time.' 'So Christ has 
kept you during those three hours, has He 
not? 'asked the minister. ' Yes, I suppose 
He has,' Brother A. replied. ' Well, now, if. 
Christ has kept you during those three 
hours, do you not suppose He can for an- 
other hour ? ' * Why, certainly,' said Brother 
A. * And for another ? ' ' Why, certainly ! ' 
^And for another?.' * Why, certainly.' 

* And then can't He go on keeping you ? * 
'Why, certainly.' 'Well, that is the doctrine 
of perfection — Christ keeping you hour by 
hour and moment by moment," explained the 
minister. 

Well, I wanted to answer the minister 
very much — but, of course, I could not while 
he was preaching — '' My dear sir, your ques- 
tioning of Brother A. is well enough — pro- 
vided you set him to trying himself by the 
right standard ; but that is precisely what 



Not Having Attained, 309 

you are not doing. You are telling him to 
try himself by what he thinks about himself. 
Whereas the right standard is not what he 
thinks about himself, as to whether now 
and then he has consciously sinned or not, 
but is always what God thinks about him as 
He has expressed that thought in His exter- 
nal and unchangeable and holy law. Do 
you remember" — I wanted to say — "that 
passage in Corinthians where Paul tells us, 
' But with me it is a very small thing that I 
should be judged of you or of man's judg- 
ment : yea I judge not mine own self. For 
I know nothing against myself ' — that is to 
say, of course, I have no consciousness of 
special and distinct and actual sinning. I 
try my utmost to do the right — yet am I not 
hereby justified, I have no right to say, be- 
cause just now I know of no special sin 
upon my conscience, I am therefore sinlessly 
perfect — but He that judgeth me is the Lord'' * 
Therefore, because this imagination of per- 
fection is always trying itself by the wrong 
standard, by what it thinks about itself in- 

* 1 Corinthians iv. 3, 4. 



3IO Gleams from Paul's Prison, 

ternally, rather than by the Divine Law ex- 
ternally, is it impossible that it be the true 
Christian feeling. 

This imagination of perfection can not 
be the true Christian feeling, because the 
prayer our Lord taught us distinctly denies 
it. Forgive us our debts, is one petition of 
that pattern prayer. For a man to imagine 
that he has gotten beyond the need of pray- 
ing this, is to affirm that, in this world, he 
has reached a stage and sort of life which 
in this world Jesus never contemplated : is 
to deny concerning himself the thought of 
Christ about him. 

Not that I am already made perfect, says 
the Apostle. No ; the true Christian feel- 
ing is not one of perfection, but is one of 
imperfection, of a conscious and humble 
missing the mark and lowness, of the daily 
recognition of and sorrowing for sin, of the 
truth that while we do have great gifts in 
Christ, we do not have them in their fruit- 
form, but in their seed-form ; that not yet 



i 



Not Having Attained, 311 

have v/e reached the goal of the completed 
triumph, that Christ's dear grace has might- 
ily much to do with the best of us before 
we can take the full and sounding song 
upon our lips — Satisfied, because we have 
awakened in His likeness. 

The true Christian feeling being, then, no 
futile, swollen, self-sufficing, supercilious 
dream of a sinless perfection — but rather, 
like Paul's, a humble consciousness of non- 
attainment and of imperfection, being a rec- 
ognition of the fact that not yet by any means 
have we reached Christ-likeness — pass on, in 
the second place, to consider what, amid 
this true Christian i^^Vin^^ is the true Chris- 
tian action. 

There are several particulars in this 
action. 

The first is — the resolute seizure of the high- 
est possiljle ideal. Not that I have already ob- 
tained, or am already made perfect : but I 
press on, if so be that I may apprehend that 
for which also I was apprehended by Christ 
Jesus. Nothing less than this was the ideal 
and unrelaxing aim. of the Apostle— to get 



312 Gleams from PatiVs Prison, 

actually stereotyped in himself the very 
loftiest point and pitch of moral attainment 
which even the Lord Jesus Himself had in- 
tended for him. No aim lower than this — 
even the shining heights of Christ's celestial 
thought for him. And it was because his 
ideal was so lofty that the Apostle's action 
was so noble. Forevermore it is the highest 
thought of things which turns the thought 
into the highest fact of things. Even 
though the fact fall constantly short of the 
thought, it is evermore the high thought 
which is the inspiration and energy of the 
high deed. Over every picture that Raphael 
ever painted, above every statue that 
Michael Angelo ever sculptured, beyond 
every song that Milton or Dante or Words- 
worth ever sung, there hovered an ideal, 
se^n by the spirit's eye, heard by the spirit's 
ear, which yet the canvas could not catch 
or the marble imprison or the song enshrine. 
But the reason of the Madonna of Raphael, 
and of the Moses of Michael Angelo, and of 
the '^Paradise Lost" of Milton or the "In- 
ferno " of Dante or the " Ode to Duty " of 



Not Having Attained. 313 

Wordsworth, was just this ideal of picture 
or statue or song struggled toward but not 
altogether captured. Why they wrought 
so well was because they thought so high. 
And so it is the Christian who, like the Apos- 
tle, thinks high, who determines to appre- 
hend that for which he was apprehended — 
it is he who, struggling toward the high 
ideal, will approximate it the quickest and 
the surest. And while the ideal of picture 
or statue or song or speech has never yet 
been reached by the true artist or the gen- 
uine poet or the real orator, the ideal of the 
Christian shall at last be reached. They 
wear white robes in Heaven because they 
are white-souled. At last they have appre- 
hended. 

" Far out of sight, while yet the flesh infolds us, 
Lies the fair country where our hearts abide ; 
And of its bliss is naught more wondrous told us, 
Than these few words — * I shall be satisfied.' 

" Thither my weak and weary steps are tending, 
Saviour and Lord, with Thy frail child abide, 
Guide me toward Home, where, all my wanderings 
ending, 
I shall see— Thee» and shall be satisfied." 



314 Gleams from PduVs Prison. 

But the pledge of the high and final vic- 
tory is the seizure of the high ideal for it. 
And so the first particular in a true Chris- 
tian action is— -the resolute seizure of the 
utmost Christian ideal, the determining to 
apprehend that for which Christ appre- 
hends. 

Just to miss perdition, just to squeeze 
into Heaven, just to be saved so as by fire ! 
No, Heaven merely — that is not the Chris- 
tian ideal. Heavenliness — that it is. Saved 
by Christ, to become like Christ — that it is. 
For whom He did foreknow, He also did 
predestinate to be confor7ned to the image of 
His Son — that is God's thought for you ; not 
that your selfish soul 'just manage to slip 
inside the Gates of Pearl. And imperfect 
as you are consciously, and with no right 
whatever to imagine yourself any other than 
halting and staggering and slipping and 
failing and imperfect, the true action for 
you is, that, as the marksman seizes the 
target' with his eye and means to hit it, so 
you shall seize even such transcendent ideal 
as the complete conformity of even your 
poor self to the image of His Son. 



Not Having Attained. 315 

The second particular in a true Christian 
action is — the vrumediate ttirning of the high 
ideal into the highest possible practice and actual- 
ity. Says the Apostle — But One thing I do. 
Now, this One thing — this high ideal is not 
one thing in the sense of being a narrow 
thing, but rather in the sense of being a 
topmost and including and transfusing 
thing. That is a mistake which we are con- 
stantly making, that the doing the One 
thing is the attempt to become Christlike 
in one thing. Nay ; to do the One thing is 
to attempt toward Christlikeness in all 
things. 

Not long since, I was detailing to a very 
dear and cherished friend of mine a very 
noble action of another. He listened in- 
tently w^hile the recital was going on, and 
at its end broke out — " That's it, that's it — 
that is ever so much better than feeling 
good in prayer-meeting." What he meant 
was that that manly deed was better than a 
merely sentimental enjoyment of religious 
worship. So it \vas. But it did not follow, 
as we are so often apt to allow ourselves to 



3 1 6 Gleams from Paul 's Prison. 

think, that that man, Christlike in his manly 
deed, ought not also to be Christlike in a 
real and deep enjoyment of religious wor- 
ship. Sometimes men say, to be religious 
is to pay one hundred cents on the dollar. 
That is true. He is a poor Christian who 
does not purpose and struggle^ to pay one 
hundred cents on the dollar, and who salves 
his conscience about his undischarged debts 
by the raptures he gets into in the prayer- 
meeting. But. while a man ought to be 
Christlike in the fullest meeting of his obli- 
gations, he ought also to be Christlike too 
in a rejoicing worship. The One thing is 
not simply to do Christlikely in one thing ; 
it is to accomplish Christlikeness in ^ all 
things. Just as there is no tiniest flower in 
summer that is not flushed and painted by 
the one sunshine, so there ought not to be 
any part or power or faculty or opportunity 
or distress or sorrow of the Christian life 
that is not filled with the radiance of the 
one ideal — Christlikeness. 

And now, the second particular in true 
Christian action is really and actually to set 



I 



Not Having Attained. 317 

about getting heart and home and business 
and church and pleasures and companion- 
ships — the whole nature and the whole rela- 
tions of the nature — filled with Christlike- 
ness. Not to dream aboutit or intend about 
doing it — ^but to set about doing it. But 
One thing I do^ says the Apostle. 

Do you remember Wordsworth's poem of 
" Laodmia ' ? The oracle had said that the 
Greeks could not conquer the Trojans ex- 
cept some ship of Greece pushing itself 
boldly up upon the Trojan shore, the chief 
should be the first to suffer death. The 
husband of Laodmia determined to be the 
chief who, grounding his vessel's keel the 
first upon the Trojan strand, should meet 
death first, and so open the gates for the 
Grecian victory. After his death, the hus- 
band of Laodmia, by the permission of the 
gods, revisits his wife to tell her the story 
of his death. And the poem is the recital 
to her of how he purposed to do the noble 
deed ; but for love of life and for love of 
her was full of hesitation, and on the edge of 
it and yet not doing it. And in two lines 



3*1 8 Gleams from PauVs Prison. 

the poet tells the necessary story of every 
noble life : 

' ' Old frailties then recurred ; but lofty thought 
l7t act embodied n\y deliverance wrought." 

Ah, that was the secret of it — ^^that must 
be the secret for every noble life and deed ; 
notwithstanding frailties, getting lofty 
thought in act embodied. So the second 
necessary particular in true Christian action 
is, the high ideal in act embodied — the doing 
the One thing with the Apostle. 

A third particular in true Christian action 
is — Such a noble discontent with all past attain- 
ment as shall urge one into the utmost en- 
deavor toward loftier spiritual achievement 
in the future. Says the Apostle, Forgetting, 
the things which are behind and stretching 
forward to the things which are before, I 
press on toward the goal, unto the prize of 
the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. 

Did you ever think that the trouble with 
too many Christians is that they are quite 
measurably satisfied simply because they 



Not Having Attained. 319 

believe they have been converted, simply 
because they think they have right to cher- 
ish what they call a " good hope '' in Christ ? 
That is a too frequent trouble, preventing a 
noble discontent and so hindering a high 
advance. Just as though the whole of being 
Christian was in the beginning of it. But 
look upon that racer in the arena. He has 
gone through a long course of most labori- 
ous training. All the superfluous flesh upon 
him has been trained away. Every muscle 
has been developed into strength and tough- 
ness. He has practiced, for weeks and 
months beforehand, the safest and least ex- 
hausting way of running. Now the time 
for trial has arrived. See him there. The 
v/ord has been given, the race has begun. 
Watch how all his energies are tasked. See 
how all his strength is skilfully expended, 
how the muscular feet grasp the ground, 
how the body gathers itself for each forward 
spring, how the perspiration beads the 
brow, how the breast heaves, how the face 
is livid with exertion. Is the racer content? 
Does he stop now to felicitate himself upon 



320 Gleams from Paul's Prison, 

his fine muscular development ? No ; that 
laurel wreath in the judge*s hand is the 
prize before him. He is straining every 
nerve to win it. Through all these w^eeks 
and months he has known only discontent, 
nor shall he find content till the judge's 
hand has placed that wreath upon his brow. 
This is the image under which the Apostle 
presents himself to us here. " O friend/' he 
says, ^' I have not attained, I follow after. I 
am grandly discontented with myself. I 
am not altogether Christlike yet ; I would 
be Christlike. I am determined to bring 
into captivity every thought to the obedi- 
ence of Christ. Till that be done I am rest- 
less with endeavor." 

Such, then, is the true action for the 
Christian. Conscious of imperfection most 
sad and real, by the seizure of the highest 
ideal, by actual practice tow^ard the highest 
ideal, by such stirrings of noble discontent 
toward all past attainment as shall force 
him into straining struggle toward higher 
summits, he is to seek to make actual in 



Not Having Attained, 321 

himself the majestic thought of the Lord 
Jesus for him. 

I know how it is with you because I know 
how it is with myself. What Melancthon 
said I must often say, and I think you must : 
" I have found out that young Melancthon 
is no match for the old Adam." Strong 
still is the old Adam in every one of us, and 
therefore difficult is this high and holy 
struggle to which, by the very terms of our 
Christianity, we are each summoned. Let 
me, then, bring you, involved in this struggle 
as you ought to be, the i7nmense e?icourage- 
ment for the Christian which our Scripture 
suggests. This is the encouragement, that 
for the victory which shall be the issue of 
this struggle we have been laid hold of by 
Christ. Says the Apostle, that I may appre- 
hend ///^//<^r whech also I was apprehended by 
Christ Jesus, For this very apprehension 
the Christian has been apprehended. For 
this very thing the great hand of Christ has 
seized him. He shall not be defeated. 
Christ will not let him go, Christ will carry 
him through. 



322 Gleams from PauVs Prison, 

I remember when I was a timid, shrink- 
ing boy, a thousand miles from home, in a 
strange college. Through an inaptness of 
mind in that direction, and because of slight- 
ness of preparation, I was in terror in the 
presence of my mathematics. They were a 
tangle to me and a darkness. I must strug- 
gle through them or fail in my college 
course. It seemed to me I could not. Shall 
I ever forget how one of the noblest teachers 
I have ever known, and, I think, one of the 
noblest who has ever lived,* "apprehended *' 
me for mathematics ? He laid hold of me 
for them, and said — You shall struggle 
through them and unravel them. He gave 
me extra tuition. He was tender and 
patient and clear in his explanations. He 
went over the ground with me again and 
yet again. And I am sure J never can for- 
get how I began to apprehend that for 
which he had apprehended me. The light 
began to come. The tangle began to 
straighten. I began to understand and see. 
I do not think I could have done it of my- 

* The late Prof. Greene, of Brown University. 



Not Having Attained, 323 

self. But when he laid hold of me toward 
that thing, through him I began to lay hold 
of that for which he had laid hold of me. 

For even the celestial purity Christ Jesus 
has laid hold of us. Therefore, we, too, 
shall lay hold. Surely here is immense en- 
couragement while we struggle. We shall 
not fail. We are struggling on toward the 
sure shining of the Victory. 

Think of this question. If to be Chris- 
tian is to struggle thus, if only thus can the 
Heavenly radiance welcome at the last, 
what must be for that man who never strug- 
gles, who carelessly and self-pleasingly and 
somnolently floats with the . current and 
does no more? Startling question that of 
the Apostle Peter — And if the righteous 
scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly 
and the sinner appear?* 

* I Peter iv. 18. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



SUGGESTIONS FOR THE CHRISTIAN 
STRUGGLER. 



N" 



OW they do it to obtai 



:ptible 



rown 



a corru 
incorruptible, 
writes the apostle to the Corinthians.* That 
is to say — the lowest sort of a laurel wreath 
possible, that which is symbolical of a 
Strength and agility simply physical, that 
which means only bulging muscles, and 
long wind, and plunging blow, or iron grip, 
or deer-like swiftness, is never won but 
through long endeavor, steady self-denial, 
girded energy of training. And every man 
that striveth for the mastery is temperate — 
self-controlled, and straining onward — in all 
things.! But that which is the goal and 
glory of such strenuous struggle is a crown 



I Corinthians ix. 
(324) 



25. 



f I Corinthians ix. 25. 



The Christian Striiggler, 325 

corruptible — a fading wreath of laurel 
leaves. We are seeking a mastery incor- 
ruptible. They strive for that and we for 
this. But both they and we must struggle, 
though our aims be so diverse. 

Or look into a realm immensely higher. 
I was reading not long since of . Demos- 
thenes. Listen to the story of his struggle 
for the crown of oratory as another has de- 
tailed it : He built a subterranean study, to 
which he daily repaired to exercise his 
voice. He secluded himself from the pub- 
lic for months together, devoting himself to 
physical discipline and study ; and lest he 
should be tempted during these seasons to 
abandon his purpose, he shaved the hair off 
one-half his head, and thus prevented the 
possibility of relinquishing it ; he increased 
the capacity of his lungs by speaking while 
rapidly climbing steep hills. He increased 
the penetrating power of his voice by de- 
claiming on the shores of the ^gean Sea 
when lashed into fury by a storm, so that 
he could cope with the tumult of an Athe- 
nian audience. He corrected his imperfect 



326 Gleams from PauVs Prison, 

enunciation by the painful expedient of 
placing in his mouth, while speaking for 
practice, a handful of pebbles. He improved 
his awkward bearing and gesticulation by 
speaking before critical masters, and also 
before a mirror in his own house. • He ac- 
quired the power of giving ready expres- 
sion to his thoughts by continually talking. 
When persons who had suffered some wrong 
came to him, he would listen to their com- 
plaints, and reply that they had not been 
much wronged, and then when they were 
repelling this charge he would study their 
action and words as an artist studies the 
form he is to transfer to canvas. Nor did 
he spare labor or expense in the study of 
the elocutionary part of oratory under the 
best masters. To his style of thought and 
of expression he was equally alert. He 
copied and then recopied the entire writ- 
ings of Thucydides, that his own style 
might catch the glow and beauty of that. 
General bearing, gesture, vocal expression, 
the rhetorical framing and delicate balanc- 
ing of sentences and even parts of sentences, 



■<? 



The Christian Stricggler. 327 

the nice choice of words — there was no ele- 
ment which goes to make up oratory which 
missed his intent attention.'^ And so at last 
he was enabled, as the wind moves all the 
summer leaves at its own will, to become 
the perfect master of the crowding multi- 
tude of the Agora. And though, as far as 
this world goes and history, the laurel 
leaves of that high excellence are unfaded 
stilljthey too were only won through struggle. 

Now the underlying teaching of this third 
chapter of the Philippians, of the various 
parts of which we have been thinking in 
the few preceding chapters, is that the 
Christian life in what it purposes and aims 
at, is not without, but is entirely within the 
dominion of this great law of personal and 
tasking struggle. A slippered, dreamy, senti- 
mental drifting — there are no sounds of 
such Lotus - land as that, in the strong 
energy of that iiiitial volitioii of the soul for 
Christ, when, with the apostle, it exclaims : 



* Condensed from Townsend's **Art of Speech," 
pp. 21, 25. 



328 Gleams from PatiVs Prison, 

Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but 
loss for the excellency of the knowledge of 
Christ Jesus my Lord ; for whom I have 
suffered the loss of all things, and do count 
them but dung that I may gain Christ. Nor 
is there the droning of an after-dinner easy- 
chair, or the complacent quiescence of the 
perfectionist in this swift and awfully ear- 
nest self-disclosure of the apostle concerning 
the practice of the Christian life, — not as 
though I had already attained, either were 
already perfect, but I follow after, if I may 
apprehend that for which also I am appre- 
hended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count 
not myself to have apprehended : but this 
one thing I do, forgetting those things 
which are behind, and reaching forth unto 
those things which are before, I press to- 
ward the mark for the prize of the high 
calling of God in Christ Jesus. 

Everywhere in Scripture these double 
sides of the Christian life come out. The 
Christian life is of God, and yet it is of man 
too. It is of predestination, and yet it is of 
free will. It is of faith, and yet it is of 



The Christia7t Struggler. 329 

works. It is of believing, and yet it is of 
doing. It is of receiving, and yet it is of 
acting. It is of the Divine help, and yet it 
is of the human endeavor. It is of the 
blessed and down-falling Grace of God, and 
yet it is of the choosing and grasping and 
contending purpose of man. We may not 
be able to discover just where and how the 
two sides meet in harmonious marriage. 
But though our thinkings and theologies 
are too low and weak to be invited to their 
nuptials, it is still true that both sides are, 
and that they are both in harmony. They 
both are. And you must recognize them 
both. Think of the Divine side only and 
you are a fatalist. Think of the human 
side only and you are a poor, pitiable, un- 
helped waif. Recognize them both and 
equally — that is the true theology which 
does it, though you may find in it chasms 
which it is impossible for a human thought 
to bridge. It is true that all whom the 
Father hath given Christ shall come to 
Him ; and it is also true that you must come 
that you be not at last cast out. It is true 



330 Gleams from Paul's Pi'ison. 



that it is God who worketh in you both to 
will and to do of His good pleasure ; and it 
is also true that you must work out your 
own salvation with fear and trembling. It 
is true that in Christ you have Security, 
since you are found in Him ; and Righteous- 
ness, since you are clothed by Him ; and In- 
timacy, since you know Him ; and Power, 
since having risen from the dead it is His 
office to dispense it through the Holy Spirit ; 
and Purity, since at your regeneration the 
new life was implanted and' begun in you ; 
and the Hope of Victory, since through 
Christ you may attain the glorious Resur- 
rection from the dead ; and it is also true 
that to dream of yourself as perfect is to in- 
dulge the wildest of nightmares ; it is also 
true that you must follow after, that you 
may yourself get hold of that for which 
Christ took hold of you. 

The fruitful earth, and the brooding sky, 
and the chemical energy of the sunbeam, 
and the outpoured bosom of the summer 
cloud, and the freshening touch of the cool- 
ing dew, and the processes through which a 



The Christian Struggler, 331 

seed can seize the inorganic soil and change 
it into organic sustenance for man and 
beast, are of God ; and yet if a man would 
be a harvester in the crowning and gather- 
ing days of Autumn, in the ploughing and 
the sowing and the harrowing and the hoe- 
ing days of Spring, he must be a struggler. 
Every harvest is of God, and yet every har- 
vest is. of man, and it is of man through 
fnanly struggle up to it. And every palm- 
branch waved yonder in the Blessed Coun- 
try, and every white and gleaming garment 
for the saved, and every jewelled crown 
flashing on brows redeemed, are of God ; 
and yet they are of man also, as, by God*s 
good Grace, through manly and Christian 
struggle they have been reached and gained. 
If you are a Christian you are a struggler. 
If you are not a struggler you are not a 
Christian. The Christian life on its human 
side is within and not without the sover- 
eignty of struggle. Now they do it to ob- 
tain a corruptible crown, but we an incor- 
ruptible ; but if you will not " do it," there 
can be for you only the missing of the 
crown. 



332 Gleams from Paters Prison. 

Attend to these words of the Apostle : 

Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be 
thus minded : and if in anything ye are otherwise 
minded, even this shall God reveal unto you ; only, 
whereunto we have already attained, by that same 
rule let us walk. Brethren, be ye imitators together 
of me, and mark them which walk even as ye have us 
for an ensample. For many walk, of whom 1 have 
told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that 
they are the enemies of the cross of Christ : whose 
end is perdition, whose god is the belly, and whose 
gloiy is in their shame, who mind earthly things.* 

Recognizing, then, the underlying fact that 
it is to Christian strugglers this third chapter 
of the Philippians mainly speaks, I do not 
know how I can better display the practical 
meaning of these verses than to say that 
they seem to me to contain Apostolic sug- 
gestions for Christian strugglers. This, 
then, must be the purpose of this chapter, 
to discover, as they are disclosed to us in 
these verses, the Apostolic suggestions for 
Christian strugglers. 



* Philippians iii. 15, ig, Revised Version. 



The Christian Straggler. 333 

This is the first suggestion : Get the high- 
est and truest thought about the Christian Life 
— Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, 
be thus minded. 

This epithet " perfect " does not mean the 
sinlessly complete. There are no such peo- 
ple in this shadowed world. It means those 
who are thorough in their intent of struggle, 
who are not, like children, imagining that 
life is but a longer summer afternoon. The 
word is quite a favorite one with the Apos- 
tle. As, for example, where he tells the 
Corinthians — Howbeit we speak wisdom 
among them that are perfect* — plainly 
among them that are mature^ developed as 
to mind and character, and so able to re- 
ceive the v/eighty wisdom he would disclose 
to them. Said Jesus once to the disciples — 
I have many things to say unto you, but ye 
can not bear the??i now :f so He would not say 
these things now, but would wait for the 
quickening culture of the Spirit in them. 
By these perfect ones to whom wisdom can- 



* I Corinthians ii. 6. t John xvi. 12. 



334 Gleams from PauVs Prison, 

be told the Apostle means, not babes in 
Christ, but thematurer and more developed 
men and women who have grown further 
on into Christ, and who therefore can ap- 
prehend and appreciate the weightier wis- 
dom. Then, again, to the Corinthians the 
Apostle writes — Brethren, be not children 
in understanding, howbeit in malice be ye 
children, but in understanding be men*- — 
or, as it might be translated, be perfect ; 
that is, in vigor of righteous understanding 
be not children, but adults. Then, again, 
the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews 
says — But strong meat belongeth to them 
that are of full age — to them that ds^perfecf^ 
the exact Greek is — even those who by rea- 
son of use have their senses exercised to 
discern both good and evil.f This, then, 
comparing Scripture with Scripture, is the 
evident meaning of the epithet perfect in 
the words before us. It does not mean the 
sinlessly complete and the entirely sancti- 
fied. Paul tells us that even he himself was 



* I Corinthians xiv. 20. \ Hebrews v. 14. 



Tke Christian Strtiggler. 335 

not such an one. And if he was not, we 
may be sure nobody is in these days of ours, 
whatever rapture one may be brought into 
or whatever wild things one may affirm. 
But this epithet does mean the mature, the 
thoroughly earnest, those who have some 
real conception of the tremendous gravity 
and labor and consequence of the Christian 
life ; those who, beginning to build its 
tower,* sit down deliberately and count the 
cost and are willing to pay the cost ; those 
who are not thoughtless, careless, butterfly- 
chasing children, but are sober, earnest- 
minded men and women, who know that a 
good life amid this evil world can mean 
nothing less than battle, who expect the 
tough, hard fighting, and are ready for it. 

Now, Paul says, let all such deliberate, 
matured, sensible, steady strugglers get the 
truest and highest thought about their 
struggling— /<?^ them be thus minded. That is 
to say, let them be of such a mind as the 
Apostle has been indicating through all the 



* Luke xiv. 28. 



336 Gleams from PauVs Prison, 

stirring, resounding sentences of this third 
chapter. Let their mind be such a mind as 
Paul himself has come to have about it. 
Paul has said that the nieaning of the Chris- 
tian life is, first — the yielding of everything^ that 
Christ may be supreme — for Whom I have suf- 
fered the loss of all things, and do count 
them but dung that I may gain Christ. Let 
these mature and thorough-going ones be 
thus minded. Paul has said, second — that 
gaining Christy though it yield all for Him^ the soul 
gets in Christ most celestial treasure — Security, 
Righteousness, Intimacy, Power, Purity, 
Victory. Let not, then, these mature and 
thorough-going perfect ones imagine that 
in exchanging all for Christ they have made 
a bootless bargain, but rather, sure that in 
Christ they have become dowered with in- 
estimable spiritual treasure, let them, con- 
cerning that treasure, be thus minded. Paul 
has said, third — in order that the soul ap- 
prehend that for which it was apprehended of 
Christ Jesus^ in order that there be in the per- 
sonal soul grand and conscious seizure of the 
wondrous blessings and e7idowments possible in 



The Christian Struggler, 337 

Christy there must be on that soul's part strenu- 
oics and concentrated endeavor toward them — • 
even as Paul says about himself, not think- 
ing I, have reached it all, not vainly imagin- 
ing I am sinlessly complete ; this one thing 
I do, forgetting those things which are be- 
hind and reaching forth unto those things 
which are before, I press toward the mark 
for the high prize of the calling of God in 
Christ Jesus. Let these mature and thor- 
ough-going perfect ones be thus minded. 
Yielding all for Christ, transcendent gain 
in Christ, battling struggle toward Christ 
— this was the Apostle's mind concerning the 
Christian life. And, O ye perfect ones, ye 
who are no vagrant children swept by im- 
pulse, ye who are sure that the Christian 
life means somewhat, and who mean your- 
selves to make it mean somewhat, ye who 
are steady and mature in your purpose of 
being Christian, be ye, then, concerning the 
Christian life thus niinded — grasp concerning 
it the loftiest and truest thought. 

And it is always needful that we get the 
true thought behind and belonging to en- 
22 



338 Gleams fro7n Paul's Prison. 

deavor in order that we may conqueringly 
endeavor. In all realms the idea is mother, 
and the deed is child. And the traits in the 
thought which is the mother reproduce 
themselves, as by an iron law, in the deed 
which is the child. " You think of Watt,'' 
as one has said, " and instantly the steam- 
engine is suggested ; of Arkwright,. and the 
spinning-jenny whirls before you ; of Davy, 
and the safety-lamp lights up the mine ; of 
Harvey, and the blood courses the more 
quickly in your veins ; of Jenner, and 
you see disease stayed in its progress by the 
pricking of a lancet ; of Morse, and the 
electric spark is seen darting from continent 
to continent, ready to ' put a girdle round 
the earth in forty minutes.* *' But for all 
these the thought, the clea» and high con- 
ception was minister to the victorious deed. 
So also is it the noble conception, the lofty 
thought of the Christian life, whence an as- 
piring and triumphant Christian life can 
spring. If you think the Christian life to 
be a sweet and sleepy summer afternoon, 
you will live as though it were. Be thus 



The Christian Struggler. 339 

minded then, have the Apostle's mind, O 
Christian struggler — get the truest, strong- 
est, sublimest thought of the present duty 
and future destiny of that sort of life which 
Jesus came into the world to implant in men 
and women. The thought, for it is this — 
everything yielded /(:?r Christ, holiest treas- 
ure in Christ, battling struggle toward 
Christ. And that you be thus minded, that 
you have no other or lower or easier thought 
of it than this, is the Apostle's first sugges- 
tion to the Christian struggler. 

Here is the second Apostolic suggestion 
for the Christian struggler : Be certain of the 
helping Divine Illumination — and if in any- 
thing ye are otherwise minded, even this 
shall God reveal unto you. 

It does not follow, because you may have 
generally the right thought concerning the 
Christian life, that about this particular and 
that and that and that and that and that 
you may not be mistaken. But it does fol- 
low that, filled with a high conception of 
the majesty and the meaning of the Chris- 



340 Gleams from Paul's Prison. 

tian life, and going on in noble struggle to 
actualize it, you shall receive constantly in- 
creasing and correcting light from God. 
You shall not be as one who stumbles on in 
the darkness. The path of the just shineth 
more and more unto the perfect day.* It 
is a beautiful suggestion of Lord Bacon, 
that of the Divine days of Creation, the first 
day's work was light, the last day's work 
was still light, and the Sabbath day's work 
has been ever since only light. The first 
day's work — physical light, the light of 
sense, when God said let light be, and 
light was ; the last day's work — the light of 
reason, when God, creating man, kindled a 
reflection of His own image in human 
nature ; the Sabbath day's work ever since 
has been and will be — the illumination of the 
Divine Spirit^ and, through its radiance, the 
nurturing and perfecting of that which is 
most like God in man. Says Jesus, If any 
man willeth to do His will he shall know of 
the doctrine.f If in noble struggle you 



* Proverbs iv. i8. f John vii. 17, 



The Christian Struggler. 341 

front toward God, albeit the mists of mis- 
takes and sins do hang before your eyes, be 
you certain that the Divine sunrise shall 
smite down those mists, that God shall re- 
veal even this unto you. You can not be 
an unhelped struggler. Catch a moment 
the same strain from the older Scripture as 
Hosea sings it — Then shall we know, if we 
follow on to know the Lord : His going 
forth is prepared as the morning ; and He 
shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter 
and former rain unto the earth.* O friend 
of mine, in doubt and trouble, whom ques- 
tions haunt as bad dreams do uneasy sleep, 
for whose feet perplexities are as tangling 
as are the interweaving trails in some pri- 
meval Western forest, buffeted as you seem 
to yourself to be by most strange Provi- 
dences, coming upon difficulties and temp- 
tations as invading armies come against 
unsuspected and frowning breast-works 
disputing their advance, perhaps just now 
quite discouraged, and almost on the point 



Hosea vi. 3. 



342 Gleams from Paul's Prison. 

of saying, it is a hard struggle and a weary, 
and I will give in and follow the world's 
way and let myself be swept into easy evil 
— Wait a moment, and remember that to 
brave strugglers God has promised help and 
light. As He is true, there must come to 
you the shining of His revealing. Do not 
yield yet ; do not give up. If the struggle 
is hard, the promise is great. With fresh 
faith lay grip to this second Apostolic truth 
for Christian strugglers— j^^ shall not stay 
unhelped. And if in anything ye are other- 
wise minded — if you are doubtful or mis- 
taken or troubled — even this shall God re- 
veal unto you. 

Here is a third Apostolic suggestion for 
Christian strugglers ; — Do not be a free-lance 
struggler, a guerilla^ one who does his fight- 
ing on his own hook"^ — only, whereunto we 
have already attained, by the same rule let 
us walk. Very suggestive is the picture in 
the Greek here which our English so dimly 
paints ; by that same rule let us march in 



I 



* Newland's Commentary, in loco. 



The Christian Struggler. 343 

order. It is a military picture of going on ; 
not each one for himself, and helter-skelter, 
but in rank, and each supporting each be- 
cause they are in rank. And a most legiti- 
mate meaning of this suggestion is, I am 
sure, this — do not think, O struggler, that 
you can get on without your Brethren, with- 
out the marshalled elbow-touch of their com- 
panionship ; in your struggling, value the 
most intimate association with Christ's 
Church. 

Needed is a suggestion like this, in these 
days of hurly-burly and sporadic and un- 
organized and individual Christian working. 
But Paul says do not go off as a knight- 
errant. March in rank^ value and use your 
association with the church. And yet how 
easily now do Christian strugglers allow 
themselves to become disassociated from 
the church and degenerate into free-lance 
strugglers, if indeed, becoming such, they 
struggle in any wise ; and for what flippant 
reasons. 

Here is one who is not noticed in the 
church, there is not the acquaintanceship, 



344 Gleams from Paul's Prison, 

the smile of welcome, the hand grasp. And 
that there is not enough of that in any- 
church, I grant. And yet, in forty-nine 
cases out of every fifty, this unnoticed 
one is one who will not let himself be 
noticed, who shoots out of the sanctuary 
door as a bullet leaves the gun muzzle, 
who never is present at any of the meetings 
of the church appointed for the forming of 
acquaintanceship, who never has sought or 
even turned toward welcome or hand grasp, 
and then — drops off, declaring the church 
an iceberg, and so refuses to march in rank, 
and becomes a free-lance struggler. 

Here is one who allows himself to get 
disassociated from the church for a pecu- 
niary reason. There never was an army 
that did not cost, and the Church costs. A 
minister in Scotland preached a noble ser- 
mon on the freeness of the water of life — 
that it was without money and without price, 
and then they took up a collection for 
foreign missions. And one said, the water 
of life is free, but you must have money to 
get the pitchers to carry the free water in — 
and that is true. 



The Christian Struggler, 345 

But if there be any mean and miserable 
money-rating of men in' a church, if men 
be ranked simply by their ability of money- 
giving, if you call men strong or weak, not 
according to their nobleness of spiritual 
character, but simply because of the weight 
of the purses they can carry, why, then — 
while you may do that in the business 
street, you are committing heinous and 
grievous wrong if you do it in Christ^s 
Church, The money test is not the test for 
the Church of Christ. 

But here, on the other hand, is as real and 
as bad a wrong. Where a man himself 
makes the money reason the reason for the 
disassociation of himself from the mar- 
shalled order of the Church of Christ. If 
one can not pay, the Church says gladly, we 
are Brethren and Sisters, you are most wel- 
come to this seat assigned you. But the 
man says, blinded by a foolish pride, no ! 
and drops off and becomes a free-lance 
struggler. The Church says, giving is a 
Christian duty; we do not declare the amount 
you ought to give, that is for you and 



346 Gleams from PauVs Prison, 

Christ to settle ; give what you can and 
think you ought ; the spirit within the 
widow's mites made them resplendent with 
the light of Heaven. But the man says, no 
— because I can not give as much as this 
one or that other, I am too proud to march 
in rank at all ; and he drops out and degen- 
erates into a free-lance struggler. Ah ! to do 
that — to let yourself fall out of rank from 
Christ's Church because of the money 
standard which you set up — that, too, is a 
proud and heinous wrong. 

Here is one who has been associated with 
the church and has removed his residence, 
and has a church letter in his pocket. But 
he does not present it, and neglecting, after 
a little, does not care to — and so, after a 
while, gets among the dropped people and 
becomes a straggler through neglect. And 
here is one who goes off on some individual 
mission ; puts all time, thought, prayer, at- 
tendance into that ; calls the church cold 
and laggard, but never tries himself to make 
it better ; gets to be a fault-finder and a 
scold, and so again becomes a free-lance 



I 



The Christian Struggler, 347 

struggler, through a bad zeal prompting to 
the breaking of covenant vows. 

But Paul says — march in order. Value 
and maintain your association v^ith the 
church. No free-lance struggler is a strong 
struggler. He needs the church. 

He needs it because he needs to be asso- 
ciated with that which God so highly values. 
Listen to this enumeration of the names 
which God has given in the Scriptures to 
the Church He loves as they have been 
gathered by an old divine : Assembly of the 
Saints ; Assembly of the Upright ; Body of 
Christ; Branch of God's Planting; Bride 
of Christ ; Church of God ; Church of the 
Living God ; Church of the First-born ; 
City of the Living God ; Congregation of 
Saints ; Congregation of the Lord's Poor ; 
Dove ; Family in Heaven and Earth ; Flock 
of God ; Fold of Christ ; General Assembly 
of the First-born ; Golden Candlestick ; 
God's Building ; God's Husbandry ; God's 
Heritage ; Habitation of God ; Heavenly 
Jerusalem ; Holy City ; Holy Mountain ; 
Holy Hill ; House of God ; House of the 



348 Gleams from PauVs Prison, 

^God of Jacob ; House of Christ ; House- 
hold of God ; Inheritance ; Israel of God ; 
King's Daughter ; Lamb's Wife ; Lot of 
God's Inheritance ; Mount Zion ; Mountain 
of the Lord of Hosts ; Mountain of the 
Lord's House ; New Jerusalem ; Pillar and 
Ground of the Truth ; Place of God's 
Throne ; Pleasant Portion ; Sanctuary of 
God ; Sister of Christ ; Spiritual House ; 
Spouse of Christ ; Strength and Glory of 
God ; Sought out, a City not forsaken ; 
Tabernacle ; The Lord's Portion ; Temple 
of God ; Temple of the Living God ; Vine- 
yard.* 

You can not afford to be disassociated 
from that which God so honors and so 
loves. 

And a Christian struggler also needs the 
Church, because he needs the elbow-touch 
and heartening of Brethren and Sisters 
pressing on in the same high war. The 
communion of the saints, the gathered 
prayers and praises of the sanctuary, the 
t 

*Bate. 



The Christian Struggler. 349 

orderly instruction from the Divine Word, 
the social interchange of Christian thought 
and experience and prayer in the weekly 
prayer-meeting — such stimulants and en- 
couragements as these the Christian strug- 
gler needs and must have, if he would bat- 
tle well and bravely. Receive then this 
third apostolic suggestion for the Christian 
struggler. Whereunto we have already 
attained, by that same rule let us march in 
order. Do not be a free-lance struggler. 

Here is a last suggestion for the Christian 
struggler : Einulate the loftiest examples — 
Brethren, be ye imitators together of me, 
and mark — intently regard — them which so 
walk even as ye have us for an ensample. 
They are not all Israelites who are of Israel ; 
it is not true that there is no seeming in the 
Church of Christ ; there are those who, en- 
tering the arena, do not run ; who, swearing 
allegiance, do not go on in the holy war — I 
have told you often of them, says the Apos- 
tle, and now tell you even weeping, that 
they are the enemies of the Cross of Christ. 



350 Glemns from PaiiVs Prison. 

As one explains : "The humbling, softening, 
transforming power of that Cross they know 
not, and they do not care to know ; its un- 
selfishness, its unworldliness, its holiness, 
its mortification of the flesh, its substitution 
of the future for the present, of the unseen 
for the visible, of Heaven for earth, is a 
mere riddle or a mere offence to them ; they 
belong to this life, where their heart and 
their affection and their treasure is/'* Their 
mind is earthly, their god is the pitiable 
passing worldly appetite and pleasure, their 
end is perdition. There are such even 
among those who profess to be Christian 
strugglers. 

But, O genuine Christian struggler, why 
should you choose to follow them ? Why 
should you say, he is a member of the 
church and he does bad or questionable 
things, therefore I may do them. Not so. 
Intently regard them which walk even as 
ye have us for an ensample, says the Apos- 



* " Lectures on the Philippians," by Dr. Vaughan, 
p. 266. 



The Christian Struggler. 351 

tie. Copy the highest. That is the only 
rule for getting toward the highest. 

Some say that his face glowed crimson 
>and his eye flashed fire, as, for the first time, 
he gazed upon a masterpiece of Raphael, 
and exclaimed, " I, too, am a painter.'* And 
the tender radiance of the Holy Night, 
where, held in the Virgin's arms, the light 
streams from the Holy Child as from a ce- 
lestial center, making earth's darkness glo- 
rious, was possible for Correggio, because 
he turned admiring and transcribing gaze 
upon the St. Cecelia of Raphael. The YV'ay 
to reach the highest is to copy from the 
highest. 

Receive, then, O Christian Struggler, this 
last suggestion from the great Apostle. 
Disdain to imitate those who only sadly dis- 
honor and misrepresent the Christian life. 
Emulate, rather, the loftiest examples, and 
determine to reach yourself what they have 
reached. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

REASONS FOR STANDING FAST. 

IT is in these verses that the Apostle plies 
these Philippian Christians with won- 
derful and weighty reasons, amid what 
oppositions and discouragements soever, for 
standing fast in the Lord : 

For our conversation is in Heaven ; from whence 
also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ : 
who shall change our vile body, that it may be fash- 
ioned like unto His glorious body, according to the 
working whereby He is able even to subdue all things 
unto Himself. Therefore — the word points backward 
to what the Apostle has just been saying — my Breth- 
ren dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, 
so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved.* 

" Soevis tranquillus in undis — never more 
placid than when the storm was wildest and 



* Philippians iii. 20, 21, and iv. I. 
(352) 



Reasons for Standing Fast. 353 

the night darkest/' writes Mr. Motley of 
that steadiest of heroes, William the Silent, 
Prince of Orange. Under the leadership of 
his brother, and in a battle against the fight- 
ing of which just then the Prince had ear- 
nestly counselled, the forces of the tyran- 
nous Philip the Second had won a sweeping 
victory. The skies were black and the 
waves were wild, and the little ship of the 
Dutch Republic was in sad stress. But the 
steady hero has no other thought than that 
of standing fast. " Nevertheless, since it 
has thus pleased God,'* he writes to his 
brother, " it is necessary to have patience, and 
to lose not courage ; conforming ourselves 
to His Divine will, as, for my part, I have 
determined to do in everything which may 
happen, still proceeding onward in our work 
with His Almighty aid J* * Which is an illus- 
tration of the Apostolic meaning, when he 
exhorts these Philippian Christians to stand 
fast in the Lord. 

Here is a page from the Roman historian, 

* Motley's ** Rise of the Dutch Republic," Eng. ed.. 
p. 408. 

23 



354 Gleams from PauVs Prison. 

Tacitus. Rome had been devastated by 
fire. It was the general belief that the 
Emperor Nero himself had set the torch. 
By many methods he had tried to ward 
away the tremendous unpopularity spring- 
ing from the action. And Tacitus goes on 
to say — *' But not all the relief that could 
come from man, nor the bounties of the 
Prince, nor the atonements offered to the 
gods, relieved Nero from the infamy of 
being believed to have ordered the confla- 
gration. Therefore, in order to suppress 
the rumor, he falsely charged with the guilt 
and punished with the most exquisite tort- 
ures those persons who, hated for their 
crimes, were commonly called Christians. 
And in their deaths they were made the 
subjects of sport, for they were covered with 
the hides of wild beasts and worried to 
death by dogs, or nailed to, crosses, or set 
fire to, and when day declined were burned 
to serve for nocturnal lights." Which per- 
secution did not indeed break out until 
some years after the writing of this Epistle 
to the Philippians, but the account of which 



I 



Reasons for Standing Fast. 355 

serves easily enough to show the kind of 
light in which the Christians were getting 
to be looked at, and the immense and often 
torturing difficulty of standing fast in the 
Lord. 

This phrase, standing fast, is quite a 
favorite one with the Apostle. They are 
steady, robust, unswayed, pillar-like Chris- 
tians he is anxious for. Stand fast in the 
faith, he writes to the Corinthians.* Stand 
fast therefore in the liberty wherewith 
Christ hath made us free,f he writes to the 
Galatians. For now we live if ye stand fast 
in the Lord,i he breaks out in his first letter 
to the Thessalonians. And in his second 
letter to them he strikes the old note again. 
Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the 
traditions which ye have been taught, 
whether by word or our epistle.§ It was 
not of circumstances^or of difficulties these 
early Christians " were to take account ; 
whether of schisms and parties in the 



* I Corinthians xvi. 13. f Galatians i. 5. 

% I Thessalonians iii. 8. § 2 Thessalonians ii. 15. 



356 Gleams from Paul's Prison. 

church as among the Corinthians, or of en- 
slaving sacramentarian doctrines as among 
the Galatians, or of various tribulation as 
among the Thessalonians, or of pitch-smear- 
ings and midnight burnings as soon came 
to be the fact among the Romans, or of 
dogs and evil-workers and bad teachings of 
the concision as among the Philippians. 
Their simple and foremost duty was, against 
all and amidst all, to stand fast in the 
Lord. 

And the injunction is neither obsolete nor 
needless toward ourselves in these latter 
days. While Christianity has largely con- 
quered the world, it has by no means yet 
transfigured it. That it is impossible to be 
Christian and do business is not an unusual 
rumor wafted now about the streets of trade. 
It is not so rare to-day to hear it said, that 
it is fine and cultured and liberal and ac- 
cording to the spirit of the age and scien- 
tific, to be sure that Christ is no more than 
a Socrates or a Plato or a Shakespeare, and 
that the Scriptures are only " old Jew stars 
burned out." The flesh and the Devil have aot 



Reasons for Standing Fast. 357 

yet ceased their fascinations. Demas, who for- 
sook the Gospel for the love of this present 
world, did not die leaving no family behind 
him. Though there are now no Sanhedrims 
whose blows are stones crashing down upon 
a steadfast Stephen, there are Sanhedrims of 
fashionable scorn and bad and deft expedien- 
cies, and easy-going self-indulgences, and 
pernicious pleasures, and simply worldly 
ideals of life. To stand fast in the Lord — in 
the secret places of the inner self, in the 
shelter of the home, in the open paths of 
the daily business, in the rounds of social 
intercourse, in the thronging temptations of 
a great city, in the devious ways of political 
endeavor — has not become so common and 
popular a thing, in these days of ours, as to 
need no strenuous incitement toward it. 
The Yellowstone River flows into the Mis- 
souri, and the Missouri into the Mississippi, 
and the Mississippi into the Gulf ; and a 
vessel caught in the grasp of the downward 
current, and starting from Fort Keogh on 
the Yellowstone, can make the vast distance 
to the Gulf in a comparatively short period. 



358 Gleams from PatiVs Prison, 

But to start from the Gulf and struggle up- 
ward to Fort Keogh is an immensely longer 
and harder thing. The great world-cur- 
rents set mainly downward still, and to be 
Christian, even in these latter days, is to 
work up stream. 

Therefore, stand fast in the Lord, my 
dearly Beloved. The word Therefore sug- 
gests reasons. And the Scripture leading 
up to the Therefore is full of most stirring 
and stringent and heart-helping reasons for 
standing fast in the Lord. 

This, then, is the thought for our chapter 
— the Apostolic reasons for a Christian stead- 
fastness. 

This is the first reason : Stand fast in the 
Lord because you possess a Heavenly Citizenship. 
For our conversation — more correctly, ac- 
cording to the New Version, citizenship— is 
in Heaven. 

Very different was the Apostle really from 
that which he was supposed to be by those 
Roman praetors at Philippi, in those days 
of persecution out of which sprang this Phi- 



Reasons for Standing Fast, 359 

lippian church. You remember how it was. 
After Paul, preaching God's evangel in that 
city, a poor, possessed, crazed maiden fol- 
lowed with wild speech. She was the slave 
of men who, from the superstitious rabble, 
filched large gains through her incoherent 
words and senseless ravings. At length 
Paul, in the name of Jesus Christ, com- 
manded the raging demon to come out of 
her, and the sunlight of a sweet and maid- 
enly sanity fell on and filled that troubled 
and darkened soul. But the masters, cruel 
with greed, were angry. They stirred up a 
tumult through the city. And, gripped by 
a mob, the Apostle was dragged into the 
presence of the praetors. They, thinking 
him but some miserable disturber, would 
disdainfully waste no time on him in investi- 
gation or in trial ; but on the bared back of 
the Apostle commanded the lictors at once 
to lay the furrowing stripes. Then Paul 
and Silas were thrust into the inner prison, 
and, with their feet made fast in stocks, 
were specially committed to the merciless- 
ness of the Roman jailer. But God shook 



360 Gleams from PaiiVs Prison. 

the prison in the midnight, and the hard 
heart of the jailer even was melted at the 
vision of the Crucified. 

But those praetors knew not what they 
did when they scourged and imprisoned 
Paul. All the time he had been in a citizen- 
ship before the majesty of which no lawless 
scourge might lift itself, nor upon whose 
simple and crowned dignity no swift, unlaw- 
ful incarceration might shut its iron doors. 
He was immensely more than he had seem- 
ed. Those proud praetors had thought him 
criminal ; but, in their hurried and illegal 
scourging and imprisonment, they had 
made themselves coweringly criminal before 
the awful might of the Roman law. " I am 
no poor colonist ; I am no thralled and 
helpless captive ; t am no undefended waif 
or slave, who can have neither will nor 
rights, and for whom there are no courts 
nor orderly tribunals. I am among those 
who possess the lordliest and most coveted 
distinction. I am guarded and dignified by 
imperial authority. Poor and helpless as I 
seem, I am lifted and mighty and ennobled 



Reasons for Standing Fast. 361 

in the citizenship which I possess. I will 
stand in that, I will walk worthily of that, 
I will not disgrace that, I will demand the 
rights appropriate to that," Paul could say. 
"They have beaten us openly and uncon- 
demned, and now do they cast us out priv- 
ily ? Nay, verily, but let the praetors come 
themselves and fetch us out,* Civis Roma- 
nussum — I am a Roman citizen," the Apostle 
could say to the now cringing praetors. 

So does the poorest and the humblest and 
the most bestormed and the most buffeted 
and the most tempted and the most lonely 
and the most sorrowful and the most un- 
noticed and the most heart-sick and the 
most (measured by worldly standards)* un- 
successful Christian stand in a citizenship, 
compared with which that lordly one of 
ancient Rome or any men can confer to-day 
is but as the flash of the glow-worm to the 
sun at noon. He is immensely more than 
he may seem. He is dowered with that 
citizenship, not as something w^hich is to 



* Acts xvi. 37. 



362 Gleams from PauVs Prison, 

come, but as that with which he is now en^ 
nobled. For our citizenship is in Heaven. 
The glorious rights and privileges and im- 
munities of the Sons of God are not simply 
to be his, but are his now. He that believeth 
on the Son hath eternal life.* Eternal life 
is the Christian's now. There is therefore 
now no condemnation to them that are in 
Christ Jesus. f The Christian possesses 
freedom from condemnation now. And if 
children then heirs, heirs of God and joint- 
heirs with Christ.J The Christian is joint- 
heir with Christ now. Because greater is 
He that is in you than he that is in the 
world. § The Christian is in alliance with 
the Mighty One novv^. Whether Paul, or 
Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or 
death, or things present, or things to come, 
all are yours ; and ye are Christ's, and Christ 
is God's.|| The Christian is possessor of il- 
limitable treasure now. 

Somewhere I have heard of a picture 



* John iii. 36. f Romans viii. i. 

% Romans viii. 17. §1 John iv. 4. 

II I Corinthians iii. 22, 23. 



Reasons for Standing Fast, 363 

which, looked at in the usual light, shows 
you nothing- more than the figure of a wea- 
ried and defeated pilgrim stretched in his 
last sickness on a straw pallet in the poorest 
sort of a city garret. But when you look 
at the picture in the light the artist meant, 
you see that above the head of that outcast 
and dying man the air is all athrong with 
angels, and the down-streaming light from 
the upper city is pointing out the pathway 
thither. The first sight shows you what the 
man seems ; the second reveals to you what 
he really is — -in what sort of a citizenship he 
is genuinely held. 

Because then your citizenship is in Heav- 
en ; because you belong to a realm other 
than the passing and the earthly ; because 
already you catch foretastes of its joys and 
glimpses of its brightness ; because you are 
even now crowned with the dignity of the 
Sons of God ; because though in the sight 
of men you may seem to be but earth's 
poorest peasant, yet in the sight of God are 
really a member of the selectest nobility of 
the universe, therefore stand fast in the 



364 Gleams from PmiVs Prison, 

Lord, my dearly beloved ; rejoice in the 
privileges of that citizenship ; damage not 
its dignity by a wavering and staining 
Vvorldliness ; walk worthily of its glorious 
and transcendent majesty. Stand fast in 
the Lord. Even as Augustine says upon 
this ver}^ Scripture : ^^ Already in longing 
we are there ; already hope into that land, as 
it were an anchor, we have sent before, lest 
in this sea being tossed we suffer shipwreck. 
As of a ship which is at anchor we rightly 
say that already she is come to land, and 
hath been in a manner brought to it safe in 
the teeth of winds and in the teeth of 
storms ; so against the temptations of this 
sojourning our hope being grounded in that 
city, Jerusalem, causeth us not to be carried 
away upon the rocks." * 

Here is the second Apostolic reason for a 
Christian steadfastness. Stand fast in the 
Lord, because in Heaven you have a Saviour^ 
the Lord Jesus Christ, who surely regards you 



* Quoted in " Newland's Commentary," in loco. 



d 



Reasons for Standing Fast, 365 

and will come to you. From whence also we 
wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Gather for a moment the inspiration stir- 
ring in these crowding titles of our Lord — 
Saviour ; Lord ; Jesus ; Christ. Names 
mean much in Scripture. The Lord — that is 
Jehovah, the I Am, the Unconditioned, the 
Supreme, the Absolute Ruler, before whom 
the nations are as a drop of the bucket, and 
are counted as the small dust of the bal- 
ance ; Who taketh up the isles as a very lit- 
tle thing. Christ is He, and we have Him 
in Heaven. 

Christ — that is Messiah, the Anointed 
One, the High-Priest of our profession. 
Who is not entered into the holy places 
made with hands, which are the figures of 
the true ; but into Heaven itself, now to ap- 
pear in the presence of God for us j who ever 
liveth to make intercession for us, Christ is He, 
and we have Him in Heaven. 

Jesus — that is the Deliverer, the true 
Joshua, of whom the earthly Joshua was but 
a poor and partial type— the leader into our 
heavenly inheritance, and the fighter of our 



3,66 Gleams from Paul 's Prison, 

battles. Christ is He, and we have Him in 
Heaven. 

Saviour — that is the One who saves, whose 
mighty mission is the eternal safety of His 
people. Christ is He, and we have Him in 
Heaven. 

But we do not have this Supreme Sover- 
eign and interceding High - Priest and 
Complete Deliverer and Infinite Saviour as 
One shut away in the Heavens, distant from 
us by chasm measureless and careless of us. 
We wait for Him. We wait for Him as 
Mary and Martha waited for His coming 
from Jerusalem when the evening shadows 
fell, and His work of teaching for that day 
was finished in the Temple when He was in 
the flesh. We wait for Him, sure as they 
were of His personal and specializing love 
for us, and certain of His coming. 

Even now He comes through the minis- 
tration of the Holy Spirit — the omni- 
present Christ — '^ a Christ," as one has said, 
^' whom no distance can remove, whom the 
sick man can have in his chamber, the 
prisoner in his dungeon, the exile in his 



Reasons for Standing Fast, , 367 

place of banishment, the martyr in his fires, 
present to the heart, more present than 
looks or words ; present v/hen the eye is 
blind and can not see Him, and the ear is 
deaf and can not hear Him speak. And yet 
the consciously - felt Christ. ^ The world 
seeth me not, but ye see me.' " * 

Even more really shall He come in the 
death-hour. When in this order of succes- 
sion as they always do, the senses yield. 
The sight first. " Do you know me ? " asked 
a friend of Senator Sumner, when he lay 
dying. "Yes," was the reply, "but I can 
not see you'*; the taste next, there is no 
longer reply of delicate nerve of taste to 
cordial or to medicine ; the sense of smell 
next, the reviving cologne or camphor can 
no more be recognized ; the hearing next,, 
the words of love fall on utterly unrespond^ 
ing ears ; the touch last, that hand you hold 
does not feel yours, those lips must hence- 
forth be careless of your kiss ;f — when one 
by one, and in such order the senses broken 

* Dr. Bushnell, *' Vicarious Sacrifice," p. 80. 
f '* Intermediate World," by Townsend, p. 198. 



368 Gleams from Paul 's Prison. 

down by death give way, and like a vessel 
which has slipped her moorings one by one, 
the soul begins its voyage out into the i it- 
finite unknown ; our Lord and Priest arid 
Deliverer and Saviour whom we have in 
Heaven, comes with closer and directer 
presence to bless us with His welcome, and 
to conduct us to His glory. Said the mother 
of John Wesley, jiist before the Christ for 
whom she v/aiied came to her in triumph- 
ant death : " Children, as soon as I am re- 
leased, sing a Psalm of praise to God/* As 
another asks, "AVhat better could the chil-. 
dren do ? " 

And yet more mightily and really shall' 
this Christ come in His flaming and glorious 
Second Advent. When or altogether how I 
can not tell you — but for His waiting 
Church He shall surely come. In His celes- 
tial and overcoming splendor ' the' ^tvrorld 
shall see that He is veritably King and 
Judge and Saviour, and in that triumph His 
saints shall share. 

Therefore, since you have in Heaven such 
a Christ — Ruler, Priest, Deliverer, Saviour; 



Reasons for Standing Fast. 369 

since you may be certain of His personal 
and regarding love, since in answer to your 
expectant waiting He comes, now in the 
presence of the Holy Spirit, an.d will come 
in death, and will come for your utmost tri- 
umph in His Advent, therefore stand fast 
in such a Lord, my dearly beloved. Be not 
waverers. Be not faint-hearted. Be not 
caught in the wiles of the Devil. Be not 
false to your profession. Hold fast to your 
profession. Stand fast in the Lord. 

Here is the third Apostolic reason for a 
Christian steadfastness. Stand fast in the 
Lord because you are the subjects of a tran- 
scendent and all-inclusive Redemption ; who 
shall change our vile body — as the New 
Version has it better, the body of our hu- 
miliation — that it may be fashioned like 
unto His glorious body. 

For, the Redemption which Jesus brings 
us is not in any sense a partial one. It does 
not save a fragment of us. It does not 
draw its glorious Circle around the soul 
alone, leaving the body to condemnation 
24 



370 Gleams from PauVs Prison. 

and dishonor. It draws its glorious circle 
around the body together with the soul. It 
crowns and graces every part of us. It en- 
nobles us in our totality. It is a Redemp- 
tion (^//-inclusive. 

Too little vivid in the Christian thought 
and expectation of our day is this whole 
Resurrection side of our Lord's immense 
and wonderful Redemption. Too much thin 
and vague and intangible and ghostly is 
our idea of the supernal shining to which 
He beckons us. Too little do we clothe it 
with the stately denseness and reality of 
the Scripture. For in that illustrious future 
we are to be more than aerial mists of being 
transfigured by the heavenly splendor, like 
spectral clouds made golden in a summer 
sunset ; we are to be distinct, tangible, em- 
bodied personalities, solid beings in a solid 
and substantial Heaven. 

Now we are in the body of our humilia- 
tion — more body and less spirit, charged 
with the body*s care that we may live at all, 
obliged to feed it ancf to tend it and to 
clothe and to house it ; setting in motion 



Reasons for Standing Fast. 371 

enormous industries that we may make it 
comfortable ; with only here and there a 
little chink of chance for the cultivation of 
our spirits, so imperious and tyrannical is 
our body in its demands ; anxious as we 
must be, though we are only anxious in the 
Scripture sense, concerning what we shall 
eat and what we shall drink and wherew^ithal 
w^e shall be clothed. Too much in this time 
of our humiliation is the Spirit the body's 
thrall. 

Now we are in the body of our humilia- 
tion. We are strong in youth and vigorous 
in middle life, but old age comes on apace. 
Then, too, disease enfeebles us and racks us 
and thwarts us. Then, also, as another 
says : ^' Here, at the very best, the body 
comes far short of answering the demands 
made upon it by one who would walk w^or- 
thy of the kingdom and glory to which he 
is called. He would wish to serve God day 
and night in His Temple, but the very alter- 
nations of day and night impose upon him 
the necessity of sl^ep. Like his Divine 
Master he would wish to go about continu- 



372 Gleams from Paul's Prison, 

ally doing good, but the feet refuse to carry 
him, and the hands that were raised to bless 
fall powerless by his side. At every step of 
his progress he would lift his heart into the 
presence-chamber of the Great King; but 
the deeper the intensity of his feelings, the 
sooner does the bodily constitution decline 
to endure the strain. Down to the last 
moment of our earthly existence we bear 
about with us a body which hampers the 
soul in its aspirations ; and often, when the 
visions of Heaven are just about to burst 
upon the eye and the ear, the one is blind 
to every sight and the other deaf to every 
sound. There is a law in the members that 
warreth with the law of the mind. O 
wretched men that we are ! who shall de- 
liver us out of this body of death ? " * And 
then at last, and so sadly soon, old age 
manacles with its decrepitude, the keepers 
of the house tremble, the grinders cease be- 
cause they are few, they that look out of 
the windows are darkened, the grasshopper 

* **The Resurrection of our Lord," by Prof. Milli- 
gan, p. i86. 



Reasons for Standing Fast, 373 

is a burden, desire fails, or ever the silver 
cord be loosed or the golden bowl be 
broken, or the pitcher be broken at the 
fountain, or the wheel broken at the cis- 
tern.* Before the end comes, before the 
snapping of the silver cord, what shadows 
of the end appear, in trembling limbs and 
toothless jaws and dimmed vision and child- 
like weakness and smouldering purpose and 
ability. 

Now we are in the body of our humilia- 
tion. It is the seat of passion. It is the 
inlet of temptations. It is the rebellious sub- 
ject. ' tn^- 

Now we are in the body of our humilia- 
tion. We are earth-born and anchored to 
the earth. We are the captives of place a?id 
circu77ista?ice. Yonder soars the eagle, but 
we have no wings. Yonder burn the stars, 
but we can not visit them. We are the pris- 
oners of natural law. We can not bid gravity 
let go of us. We can not say to the waves, 
be still and make a calm. We can not pro- 



* Ecclesiastes xii. 3. 



374 Gleams from Paul's Prison, 

vide against destroying accident from our 
best servants, steam and fire and electricity. 
Our sovereignty over natural law is at best but 
partial. We are more servants than we are 
masters, vast as our mastership may seem to 
be. We are dull in all our senses. Ten thou- 
sand wonders troop above us and around us 
of which we are utterly unconscious. Tele- 
scopes must aid our vision into the far. 
Microscopes must sharpen our vision into 
the near. Now we are in the body of our 
humiliation, anchored, hindered, circum- 
scribed, confined. 

But then— when all the processes of Re- 
demption shall have culminated in the Res- 
urrection we shall find that we shall not 
have been saved as to our souls simply, but 
as to our bodies also. Every part of us 
shall be dignified with its splendor. The 
body of our humiliation shall be fashioned 
like unto His glorious body. We catch 
glimpses of what that body is amid the 
flashes of the post-Resurrection life of our 
Lord Jesus. It is a body independent of tyran- 
nous and physical needs. No more after the 



Reasons for Standing Past. 375 

Resurrection did Jesus eat with the disci- 
ples, but only now and then before them, 
that they might know He was veritably 
Himself. He was no longer under law to 
such physical necessities. // is a body un- 
wearied^ u?idiseased, and vigorous with an eter- 
nal youth. No longer did He sink exhausted 
on the cool well-curb in the Samaritan 
noon-heats ; no longer was He so drenched 
in sleep on a rower's cushion that winds 
and waves let loose could not awaken Him. 

// is a body the absolute servaitt of the Spirit 
which no forty days' fast can weaken, and 
along whose cravings no temptation of turn- 
ing stones to bread can come soliciting. 

It is a body unancJiored^ not held to this place 
or to that — doors which the fear of Jews had 
bolted are no hindrance to it. From the 
wondering sight of the disciples at Emmaus 
it can vanish while they gazed, and in the 
Ascension it is the buoyant and easy master 
of an all-dominating gravity. 

And of what that body is now in Heaven 
we may catch some slight glimpses from the 
dazzling symbolic vision of the Revelator 



376 Gleams from Paul's Prison. 

on Patmos, when he saw the Christ in the 
dignity of His snowy hairs, and in the youth 
and energy and far-darting brilliancy of 
His flaming eyes, and in the strength of 
His glowing feet like unto fine brass, as if 
they were resplendent in a furnace, and in 
the authority of His high speech steady 
and resistless as the murmurs of the mighty 
sea.* But the very labor of the vision 
shows how beyond conception is the glory. 
Who shall change the body of our humilia- 
tion that it may be fashioned like unto His 
glorious body ? 

'* Wings at my shoulders seem to play ; 
But, rooted here, I stand and gaze 
On those bright steps that heavenward raise 
Their practicable way. 

Come forth, ye drooping old men, look around. 
And see to what fair countries ye are bound." f 

Who shall change it, fashion it anew, 
transform it ? — the word is startlingly trans- 
figuring. That shall not be this poor body 
of flesh and blood — flesh and blood can not 



* Revelation i. 14, 15. ^ Wordsworth. 



Reasons for Standing Fast, '^yy 

inherit the kingdom of God. That shall 
not be this poor body of corruption — it is 
sown in corruption, it is raised in incorrup- 
tion. That shall not be this poor body of 
the present earthly realm — let this turn to 
dust, let the worm fatten on it, let the grass 
absorb it, let it pass off in gases — it is sown 
a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. 
Bearing some mysterious and undiscover- 
able and unrevealed relation to this, that 
shall be a body other, a body different, a 
body fitted to the highest uses and facile to 
the touch and monition of the glorified and 
redeemed spirit, and yet so real a body that 
it shall be seen that in His great Redemp- 
tion our Lord lifts the entire man — spirit, 
soul, and body — into utmost share with His 
own glorious triumph. As He slays sin for 
us, so will He slay death for us. There shall 
be no least and last thralldom which He 
shall not shatter for us. Do you not see, 
then, how it must be that the Lord Christ 
saves your e7itire personality, holds sacred 
every portion of it, and how faithless and 
needless, then, is that question with which 



3/8 Gleams from PaiiVs Prison. 

you sometimes torture yourself when the 
shadows fall and the cradle is empty — ask- 
ing yourself, will my child know me yonder, 
and I my child? Why, to its last limit, 
even to its body, fashioning- it anew like 
unto His glorious body, Christ saves that 
identical child, and will save you. You are 
not saved a fragment. You are not part 
savjcd and part destroyed. You are wholly 
saved. In that "full, personal, undivided 
life," of course, you must be recognizable 
by others and recognizing them. 

Therefore, since you may be the subject 
of such a transcendent and inclusive Re- 
demption, do not miss it by wavering, do 
not fail of it by apostasy, do not endanger 
it by a poor worldliness. Stand fast in the 
Lord, my dearly Beloved. 

Here is the fourth reason for a Christian 
steadfastness : Stand fast in the Lord, because 
there is on your side and active for you power in- 
finite — according to the working whereby 
He is able even to subdue all things unto 
Himself. 



Reasons for Standing Fast. 379 

Rowland Hill tells how once a wealthy 
man, desiring to do an act of benevolence, 
sent a large sum of money to a friend, ask- 
ing him to disburse the sum to a certain 
needy one as he thought best. This friend 
sent the poor man five pounds, and in his 
note to him said : " This is thine, use it 
wisely, there is more to follow/* After a 
while he sent another five pounds, and said 
again, *^More to follow." Again, and still 
again, and still again, and on and on and 
on he sent the money, and always with this 
message — " More to follow." 

And so in the wondrous and redemptive 
Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ there is 
always more to follow. 

You stagger and wonder at this vast Re- 
demption which shall so utterly save you as 
to include your body even, fashioning anew 
the body of your humiliation like unto His 
glorious body — why, that shall not exhaust 
the power of the Lord who loves you. 
There is more to follow — according to the 
working whereby He is able even to subdue 

ALL THINGS UUtO HimSclf. 



380 Gleams from PauVs Prison, 

Mr. Spurgeon tells how, wearied and dis- 
couraged, he was walking homeward once 
by the banks of the river Thames. There 
were obstacles before him very great, and 
just then he was faithless. And just then a 
little fish seemed to speak to him out of the 
waters, and say, "See, I am going to drink 
the river dry." Then Mr. Spurgeon was 
girded again and full of conquering courage, 
for how could he drink God dry any more 
than the little fish could drink dry the 
Thames. Able even to subdue all things. Is it 
not worth our while to stand fast in such a 
Lord ? 



CHAPTER XV. 

AT VARIANCE. 

In a valley, centuries ago, 

Grew a little fern-plant green and slender, 

Veining delicate, and fibres tender, 

Waving in the wind crept down so low ; 

Rushes tall, and moss, and grass grew round it ; 

Playful sunbeams darted in and found it ; 

Drops of dew stole down by night and crowned it ; 

But no foot of man e'er came that way ; 

Earth was young and keeping holiday. 

Monster fishes swam the silent main, 
Stately forests waved their giant branches, 
Mountains hurled their snowy avalanches, 
Mammoth creatures stalked across the plain ; 
Nature reveled in grand mysteries ; 
But the little fern was not of these. 
Did not number with the hills and trees, 
Only grew and waved in sweet, wild way — 
No one came to note it day by day. 

Earth, one time, put on a frolic mood, 

Heaved the rocks, and changed the mighty motion 

(381) 



382 Gleams frojn Paters Priso7i. 

Of the deep, strong currents of the ocean ; 
Moved the plain, and shook the haughty wood, 
Crushed the little fern in soft, moist clay, 
Covered it, and hid it safe away. 
O the long, long centuries since that day ! 

the changes ! Oh, life's bitter cost ! 
Since the useless little fern was lost. 

*' Useless ? Lost? There came a thoughtful man, 
Searching Nature's secrets far and deep ; 
From a fissure, in a rocky steep, 
He withdrew a stone, o'er which there ran 
Fairy pencilliijgs, a quaint design, 
Leafage, veining, fibres, clear and fine, 
And the fern's life lay in every line ! 
So, I think, God hides some souls away 
Sweetly to surprise us, the last day." * 

1 exhort Euodia, and I exhort Syntyche, to be of the 
same mind in the Lord. Yea, I beseech thee also, 
true yoke-fellow, help these women, for they labored 
with me in the Gospel, with Clement also, and the 
rest of my fellow-workers whose names are in the 
bookof life."t 

AND in this Scripture we have an in- 
stance of the truth of the poet's words 
— Euodia and Syntyche, just their names and 

* Mary BoUes Branch. 

f Philippians iv. 2, 3, Revised Version. 



At Variance, 383 

with the marking of a characteristic or two, 
lying here for our inspection and instruc- 
tion on this slight ledge of Scripture. We 
do not know who Euodia and Syntyche 
were. They are elsewhere never mentioned. 
We only know their names and one or two 
fragmentary things about them. But even 
as the imprint of the fern tells the thought- 
ful man searching Nature's secrets much, so 
these faint traces of lives which went out 
long ago will tell us much for these lives of 
ours, if we will wait in somewhat earnest 
thought as we gaze upon them. 

So will you notice first that these names, 
Euodia and Syntyche, are the names of 
woman. 

And here at once comes before us the 
mighty and momentous fact that it has 
always been and is a peculiar purpose of 
our Lord's Gospel to lift woman into high 
and honorable place ; to cause to be recog- 
nized her sweet dignity and her intrinsic 
equality with man. It would not be fitting 
to tell into ears made rightly sensitive by 
the pure thoughts and pure homes which 



384 Gleams from PatiVs Prison, 

are the results and heritage of centuries of 
Christianity, the depraved and oppressed 
state of woman even amid the consummate 
bloomings of the proud civilizations of 
Greece and Rome. But the moment Chris- 
tianity appears you begin to see a difference. 
Christ's Gospel was the opened gate for 
woman into purity and honor, and recog- 
nized and noble service. The Gospel lifts 
the wife from slave to helpmeet. The Gos- 
pel sets the bars of awful sanction round 
the family. The Gospel places the feet of 
woman upon the paths of bounteous and 
benignant service, in every way as honor- 
able as anything given by the Gospel to 
man to do. Coming into the presence of 
the Gospel, at once you think how the birth 
of Jesus hallowed womanhood and mother- 
hood, and of the holy women who reverently 
ministered to our Lord Christ in the days 
of His flesh. And it is surprising, if you 
will take the trouble to search your New 
Testament, how constantly the great Apos- 
tle to the Gentiles was dependent upon 
the faith and fidelity and unwearied serv- 



At Variance. 385 

ice of Christian women. You will remem- 
ber that the first convert, and so the begin- 
ning of this very Philippian church, was 
Lydia, a woman, and how immediately her 
new-found faith began to flow out into 
womanly service, as she opened her house 
for the residence and refreshment of Paul 
and Silas.* From Philippi the Apostle went 
to Thessalonica, and there, among the chief 
women hot a few,f he found his earliest ad- 
herents. Then Athens becomes the place 
of his ministry, and Damaris, a woman,J is 
specified among the converts. Then from 
the moral filth of Corinth he begins to 
gather to the pure Christ, and Chloe § and 
Priscilla || and Phoebe T are among his con- 
verts and most valuable helpers. Then turn 
to the last chapter of the Epistle to the 
Romans, and see how, in the Apostle's 
thoughtful recognition of special persons, 
the names of women stand in equal num- 



* Acts xvi. 15. 


t Acts xvii. 4. 


X Acts xvii. 34. 


§ I Corinthians i. 11 


1 \ Acts xviii. 2. 


^ Romans xvi. i. 


' 25 





386 Gleams from Paul's Prison. 

ber and on equal plane with men. Greet 
Mary, who bestowed much labor on us,* he 
says. Salute Tryphaena and Tryphosa, who 
labor in the Lord.f Salute Persis the be- 
loved, which labored much in the Lord. J 
Salute Julia and the sister of Nereus.§ And 
here in this Epistle to the Philippians, 
written afterward from Rome, we find the 
names of these other Christian women, 
Euodia and Syntyche. 

And I am very sure that we miss much in 
our Protestant Christianity, reacting into the 
custom doubtless from the bad Romish sis- 
terhoods and all the evils which spring out 
of celibate and secret nunneries ; I am sure 
that we miss much in our Protestant Chris- 
tianity through not giving to woman a dis- 
tinct and special place among the office- 
bearers of the church. I believe thoroughly 
in a female Diaconate. Writes Paul to the 
Romans, I commend unto you Phoebe, our 
Sister, who is a servant of the church at 
Cenchreajl — the New Version puts into the 

* Romans xvi. 6. f Romans xvi. 12. % Ditto. 
§ Romans xvi. 15. || Romans xvi. i, 2. 



I 



At Variance, 387 

margin, Deacoiiess — that ye receive her in the 
Lord, as becometh saints, and that ye assist 
her in whatsoever business she hath need of 
you : for she hath been a succorer of many, 
and of myself also. Servant of the church 
or Deaconess, succorer of the Apostle — does 
not that sound something like official recog- 
nition ? Likewise must the Deacons be 
grave, not double-tongued, not given to 
much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre. Ac- 
cording to the New Version — Women in like 
manner must be grave, not slanderers, tem- 
perate, faithful in all things.* Not a word 
about pastors' wives, as such, in any way, 
though there is a good deal said about pas- 
tors ; not a word about Deacons' wives, as 
such, as the old version has it ; but very 
careful words about the " Women " — that is, 
I am very sure, the Official Wonie?!^ the Dea- 
conesses. It will be a good day, I think, for 
all our Protestant churches when, coequal 
with the Board of Deacons chosen from the 
men, there shall be a Board of Deaconesses 
chosen from the women, giving them thus 

* I Timothy ill. 8, 12. 



388 Gleams from PauVs Prison, 

official place and service and recognition. 
That was done in primitive and Apostolic 
times. 

So, then, these two women, Euodia and 
Syntyche, specially named and specially 
prominent in this Philippian church, are 
significant of the fact that our Lord's Gos- 
pel means toward woman deliverance and 
honor, and the sw^eet and gentle and per- 
suasive service appropriate to her nature, 
and which no rougher and clumsier man 
can begin to do as well. 

Will you notice, in the second place, that 
these two women, Euodia and Syntyche, 
were women whose lives have left through 
all the centuries this noble trace, that, rescued 
by their Lord, they were not unmindful of their 
duty totvard Him ; but that for His sake their 
lives flowed out in service. These women 
which labored with me in the Gospel— it is 
thus Paul speaks of them. This trace of a 
holy service in the Gospel has come down 
to us. Of the sort of service we are not 
told, but we see plainly this imprint of per- 



At Variance, 389 

sonal service of some sort gladly rendered. 
" ^ Thou didst not disdain that thy only be- 
gotten Son should be born of a woman/ 
says the consecrating prayer for Deaconesses 
in the ancient church. This fact, the birth 
of the Son of God from a woman, gave to 
woman a new position " * — and to this new 
place and chance Euodia and Syntyche were 
faithful with much labor. 

And their labor was not lost. Labor in 
the Gospel never is. It left its imprint 
there on helped souls. It has left its im- 
print here in Scripture. Here is comfort 
for the lowliest worker. A life full of serv- 
ice in the Gospel must mean much. Though 
it be caught by no written recognition, its 
results go on. Duty done is blessing start- 
ed and flowing forth. No better epitaph 
for anybody possible than this — " Labored 
much in the Lord." In this respect let us 
seek to emulate Euodia and Syntyche. 

But will you go on to notice a third thing 
concerning Euodia and Syntyche, and a sad 

* Ulhorn's *' Conflict of Christianity with Heathen- 
ism," p. 177. 



390 Gleams from PauVs Prison. 

thing with which their names must be asso- 
ciated as long as Scripture lasts. Some- 
times the imprint of the fern is jagged and 
twisted. There is a sorry twist in this im- 
print which these Christian women have 
left. They were at variance. Writes the 
Apostle, I exhort Euodia, and I exhort Syn- 
tyche, to be of the same mind in the Lord. 
But they were not. They needed beseech- 
ing to become such. Christians at variance— 
that is the mournful imprint they have left. 
And the trouble is, there are a good many 
Christians still who have left and will leave 
an imprint similar. 

Remember how constant is the insistance 
of the Scripture on the necessity of unity 
among the members of a church of Christ ; 
how it exhorts Christians to be of the same 
mind,* of one mind,f one spirit,J knit to- 
gether,§ builded together,|| striving togeth- 
er,T joined perfectly together ;** how it 



* Philippians iv. 2. f I Peter iii. 8. 

X Philippians i. 27. § Colossians ii. 2. 

II Ephesians ii. 22. T Philippians 1. 27. 
** I Corinthians i. 10. 



At Variance, 391 

speaks of them as fellow-citizens,* fellow- 
heirSjf fellow-helpers,J fellow-laborers,§ fel- 
low - servants, II fellow - soldiers,^ fellow- 
workers.** 

But this . beautiful, strong, conquering 
unity Euodia and Syntyche had broken. 

Consider some of the causes which may 
have broken this Divinely-ordered Unity. 
There are none stated, indeed ; but, inas- 
much as the human heart is apt to be quite 
the same in all ages, it is not difhcult to 
imagine the causes. 

A too quick belief of an evil rtinior may have 
viade Euodia and Syntyche of diffe7^ent minds. 
Some one translates VirgiFs description of 
rumor thus : " Rumor, than which no evil is 
swifter, thrives by movement, and increases 
her strength in going. Small at first, and 
timid, soon she raises herself into the air, 
and strides over the ground, and buries her 

* Ephesians ii. 19. f Ephesians iii, 6. 

:j: 3 John viii. § Philemon 23. 

II Colossians i. 7 ; Revelation vi. 11. 
TT Philippians ii. 25. ■^* Colossians iv. ii. 



392 Gleams from Paul's Prison, 

head in the clouds. Swift of foot and of 
untiring wing, she is a frightful huge mon- 
ster, who has many watchful eyes, as many 
tongues, as many mouths, and as many ears 
as she has feathers on her body. By night 
she flies between heaven and earth, rustling 
through the darkness, and never closes her 
eyes in peaceful slumber ; by day she sits 
as a watcher upon the highest roof, or upon 
lofty towers, and alarms great cities ; for 
she is as fond of announcing that which is false 
and distorted as that which is true'' O how 
many an Euodia and Syntyche have been 
estranged by a too easily believed evil 
rumor. 

** Said Mrs. A. 

To Mrs, J., 
In quite a confidential way, 

* It seems to me 

That Mrs. B, 
Takes too much— something — in her tea.* 

And Mrs. J. 

To Mrs. K. 
That night was overheard to say — 
• She grieved to touch 

Upon it much, 
But * Mrs. B. took— such and such ! ' 



At Variance. 393 



Then Mrs. K. 

Went straight away 
And told a friend, the self-same day, 

* 'Twas sad to think ' — 

Here came a wink — 
' That Mrs. B. was fond of drink.* 

The friend's disgust 

Was such, she must 
Inform the lady * whom she nursed,' 

That Mrs. B., 

At half -past three, 
Was * that far gone, she couldn't see ! * 

** This lady we 

Have mentioned, she 
Gave needlework to Mrs. B,, 

And at such news 

Could scarcely choose 
But further needlework refuse. 

Then Mrs. B., 

As you'll agree, 
Quite properly — she said, said she, 

That she would track 

The scandal back 
To those who made her look so black. 
^ Through Mrs. K. 

And Mrs. J. 
She got at last to Mrs. A,, 

And asks her why, 

With cruel lie. 

She painted her so dt^ep a dye ? 



394 Gleams from Paul's Prison, 

Said Mrs. A., 

In sore dismay, 
* / no stick thing could ever say ; 

I said that you 

Had stouter grew 
On too much sugar — which you do ! 



Well, I think it would have been better 
for Mrs. A. not to have said even that 
about Mrs. B. If she chose to drink sweet 
tea, she had a perfect right to. But if 
things go as they are often sadly apt to, 
I am afraid Mrs. A. and Mrs. J. and Mrs. B. 
and Mrs. K. will henceforth have all beauti- 
ful, neighborly. Christian Unity broken be- 
tween them, through a too quick belief in 
and a bad giving wing to evil rumor. 

I have read of it as a true story, that the 
rumor was all over town that the minister 
had been beating his wife. There could be 
no doubt about it. Mrs. S. lived next door, 
and about ten o*clock at night she heard a 
shriek — a woman's shriek — from a room in 
the parsonage. Mrs. S. looked out, and there, 
plainly shadowed on the drawn curtain, she 
saw a man and a woman running about the 



At Variance, 395 

room in great excitement, the man striking 
with a stick ; Mrs. S. heard the blows, and 
as the man struck, the woman screamed. 

Well, Mrs. S. could hardly sleep that 
night. She welcomed the morning. She 
got through her breakfast as soon as possi- 
ble, and then she put on her things and 
started out — to see the minister and his 
wife ? O, no. She went straight to Elder 
A.'s, found the family at breakfast, breath- 
lessly told them the news, then she posted 
to Deacon C.*s, and thence half over the 
town, scattering the rumor everywhere. 

Well, by noon everybody in the town had 
heard of it, and naturally there were great 
stirrings. How disgraceful it was in the 
minister. Such conduct could not be en- 
dured. Something must be done. The 
officers of the church met and discussed the 
matter. What should be done ? Call at 
once on the minister and his wife, and, in a 
friendly way, inquire about it ? No, that 
would not be dignified ; that would not be 
official. Besides, there could be no possible 
doubt about the fact. Mrs. S. saw the beat- 



396 Gleams from PauVs Prison, 

ing with her own very eyes. So they de- 
termined to do this dignified and official 
thing. They would call a meeting of the 
church session, they would summon the 
minister to answer to the charge of unminis- 
terial conduct, they would summon the wife 
as the witness in the case. 

Well, the session was called in due forni 
and order ; the summons were sent out ; 
the minister and his wife, much perplexed, 
attended ; and the senior elder gravely 
stated the terrible case. 

Then it all came out. The parsonage had 
been for some time unoccupied. While it 
was empty the rats had taken up their 
quarters in it. That night a huge rat had 
run under the bed. The minister's wife, 
who loved her husband very much, and the 
whole Parish too, did not like rats. What 
woman does ? When she saw the rat she 
screamed. What woman w.ouldn't ? When 
her husband caught up a stick and missed 
the rat, she screamed again. What woman 
wouldn't? As her husband struck at the 
rat she ran around the room. What woman 



i 



At Variance, 397 

wouldn't do that? It must have been a 
very funny sight to a neighbor looking at 
them through the curtains. Well, as the 
story goes on, the church session were in a 
sad fix. They blamed Mrs. S. for making 
such fools of them. They asked her, '' Why 
didn't you go over to the minister's and 
make sure of the matter before you reported 
it ? " And she retorted, " Why didn't you 
go and inquire into it before you called a 
meeting ? " 

And henceforth Mrs. S. and the session, 
and possibly the minister — though I am 
quite sure he and his wife are much too 
wise to do anything but heartily laugh over 
the whole matter — are not of the same 
mind. 

Then, again, a simple mi sunder sta7iding 
springing f romf or getfulness or from so?ne other of 
the constant infirmities to which flesh is heir^ 7?iay 
have alienated Euodia and Syntyche. How 
easily a misunderstanding may spring up. 
I have read somewhere a most suggestive 
incident concerning Lord Macaulay. When 
he was a comparatively young man, and in 



398 Gleams from PauVs Prison, 



Rome, he was viewing the Coliseum, as vis- 
itors so often do, by moonlight. He was all 
by himself under the dark arches. All of a 
sudden a man in a large cloak brushed past 
him rather rudely, as Macaulay thought, 
and passed on* into the darkness. Macau- 
lay's first impulse was to put his hand to his 
watch-pocket, and sure enough his watch 
was not there. Certainly that man had 
stolen his watch. He rushed after him, 
overtook him, seized him by the collar, de- 
manded his watch. At that time Mr. 
Macaulay was not thoroughly conversant 
with Italian — could read it some, but could 
not understand it when spoken. So, shak- 
ing the man as he held him by his collar, 
all he could do was to angrily demand 
*^ Orologio ! Orologio ! " The man poured 
forth a whole flood of Italian words in 
reply. Not one of them could Mr. Macaulay 
understand. All he did was to shake the 
man again, stamp with his foot, and con- 
tinue to vociferate, " Orologio ! Orologio ! *' 
At last the man drew forth a watch, 
Macaulay seized it, put it in his pocket, le^ 



At Variance, 399 

the man go, and saw nothing more of him. 
At length, getting back to his lodgings, his 
landlady met him at the door, holding out 
something in her hand, and saying, " Oh, 
sir, you left your watch on the table, so I 
thought it better to take care of it. Here it 
is.'* Stammered Macaulay, drawing from 
his pocket the watch he had so bravely 
seized in the Coliseum, " Good gracious 1 
What .is this, then ? What is the meaning 
of it ? " It was a watch he had never seen 
before. It was the sad truth. Through a 
simple misunderstanding of the man's mo- 
tion, and through a misunderstanding 
springing out of his own ignorance of 
Italian, he himself had been the thief toward 
the man whom he verily thought had pilfer- 
ed him. Greatly crestfallen, Mr. Macaulay 
hastened the next morning to the office of 
the Questor with the watch, and told his 
story. " Ah, I see," said the Questor ; " you 
had better leave the watch with me. I will 
take your excuses to the owner of it ; he 
has already been here to denounce you." 
This is an extreme case, I grant, but it 



400 Gleams front Paul 's Prison. 

serves admirably to show how, in the most 
innocent ways possible, very terrible mis- 
understandings may spring up. Of course, 
the right thing to do is immediately through 
explanation and apology to attempt to set 
them right, as Mr. Macaulay did. But the 
trouble is people get angry, or proud, or are 
determined to put their own bad interpreta- 
tion on the cause of the misunderstanding, 
and will not even try to come to a true 
understanding, but, like Robert Burns' 
Tam o' Shanter, will go on "nursing their 
wrath to keep it warm," and so can not be 
of the same minds, but will stay in different 
ones. It is not at all unlikely that through 
some such, in the beginning altogether in- 
nocent, misunderstanding, Euodia and Syn- 
tyche may have fallen out. 

Or the fact that Euodia a7id Syntyche may 
have moved in different social circles may have 
set the7n at variance. Euodia may have for- 
gotten that in Christ's Church there ought 
never to be such things as clannish social 
sets, and so she may have looked down 
upon Syntyche, and Syntyche may have 



At Variance, 401 

been unchristian enough to resent it, and 
so the sweet unity that ought to have bound 
them together as members of the same 
Church of Christ became shattered. Ma- 
dame Recamier has been called the most 
beautiful woman and complete lady of her 
own time. The secret of her wonderfully 
winning power, some one has said, was the 
fact that for her ^^ Disgrace and misfortune 
had the same sort of attraction that favor 
and success usually have for vulgar souls." 
'^ There was the nature of a great lady," some 
one else adds. That is true. There are small 
ladies and there are great ladies. Small 
ladies are fidgety and anxious and bothered 
about the social plane on which they stand, 
think of standing on that as the main object 
of life, treat with a kind of cold disdain 
those" whom they think do not stand with 
them and have no right to. Great ladies are 
benignant, bestowing, bountiful and beau- 
tiful with sympathy, reaching out in kindly 
service. They are glad to lend helpful, 
lifting hands. They are thankful that they 
are what they are and have what they have, 
26 



402 Gleams from Paul's Prison, 

not so much that they may help themselves 
and look down on others, but that they may 
give themselves and lift up, and welcome 
others. Some say that the etymological 
meaning of the word ^^lady*' is loaf -giver. 
So that this idea of bounteousness and help- 
fulness lies way back in the root-meaning 
of the word. Has any one a right to as- 
sume the name and not be the thing? 
Surely a Christian woman ought to be in 
the deepest of senses a great lady. Perhaps 
this was the trouble between Euodia and 
Syntyche — one of them or both of them 
were small ladies and not great ladies. 

Or a tyrannous conscientiousness may have 
divided Euodia and Syntyche. Now, it is 
always right to be sternly conscientious 
toward oneself. It is right to be exquisitely 
sensitive lest any deed or indulgence of our 
own injure the weak consciences of our 
Brethren. But it is wrong to make one's 
own conscience the tyrannous sovereign 
over the consciences of other people. There 
is in every life a large realm of expediency 
and casuistry. In that realm, the Scripture 



At Variance, 403 

says every one is to be the judge for him- 
self concerning what may be wrong or right 
for himself. At the same time, he is freely 
to allow others the same liberty of conscien- 
tious choice he demands for himself. This 
is what Paul constantly affirms — Who art 
thou that judgeth another man's servant ; to 
his own Master he standeth or falleth.* 
What you are to do, keeping cleanly con- 
scientious yourself, is not to seek to intrude 
your conscience upon another, but to let him 
to his own master stand or fall. Perhaps 
Syntyche conscientiously thought something 
wrong which Euodia as conscientiously did 
not think wrong, and therefore Syntyche 
would have nothing to do with Euodia, and 
so the unity w^hich should have bound them 
in free and grand respect for each other's 
consciences was sadly broken in upon. 

Or a bad habit of criticism may have shiv- 
ered the concord between Euodia and Syn- 
tyche. Euodia may have heard of some 
criticism of Syntyche's, or Syntyche may 



Romans xiv. 4. 



4^4 Gleams from PatiVs Prison, 

have heard of some harsh criticism of Euo- 
dia's, and then perhaps they went so far, 
even though they were members of the 
same Philippian church, as to refuse to 
speak to each other. In his essay on the 
Earl of Chatham, Lord Macaulay speaks of 
a certain statesman whom Burke, with gen- 
eral applause, compared in a time of quiet 
and plenty to the evil spirit whom Ovid de- 
cribed, looking down on the stately temples 
and wealthy haven of Athens, and scarce 
able to refrain from weeping because she 
could find — nothing at which to weep. If the 
evil spirit could not criticise, she could do 
nothing. Perhaps Euodia or Syntyche were 
possessed with some such evil demon, whom 
her Christianity had not yet altogether 
exorcised. There is no quicker fracturer of 
unity than such a demon of bad criticism. 
Let me tell you a story I read once of 
"Uncle Tim's Talent": 

Uncle Tim held up his saw, and squinted along the 
teeth to see whether it was '* losing its set.*' He failed 
to decide, in his surprise on finding that he was taking 
aim at the minister, who stepped in range just at that 



I 



At Variance. 405 

moment on the street side of the fence. His eyes 
came into gear again as he laid his saw on the wood- 
pile and stepped up to the fence, saying, "Well, it's 
queer. It's only about a minute ago I was thinkin' 
of you. I was thinkin' what a good sermon that was 
you gave us last Sunday mornin', and how I would 
tell you the first time I met you." Uncle Tim was 
the wood-sawer and day's-work factotum for the vil- 
lage. Unlearned as he was, the minister always 
missed him if he was absent from church — he was 
such a helpful listener. And to Uncle Tim's compli- 
ment he replied, ** You told me you thought it was at the 
time, in the way you listened to it ; though, for that 
matter, you always seem interested. I don't suppose 
you know what a comfort such a hearer is to a minis- 
ter. If all the congregation were like you, I think I 
could turn my poor sermons into good ones." " Thank 
you," said Uncle Tim. ** I don't always get the right 
hang of everything that's said, but I should get less if 
I didn't pay attention. An* I always say to myself, 
* The minister, he works hard to write his sermons, 
and if folks don't listen to 'em it's pretty discouraging.' 
And I says, * You can't put much in the contribution- 
box, Tim, an' you can't work in prayer-meetin', but 
you can count one in listenin' ; you can try to 'predate 
what other folks do,'" " The talent for appreciating 
is an excellent one to have," remarked the minister. 
" Well, as I look at it, it isn't one to be denied to any- 
body," said Uncle Tim. ** An' if it's the only one I've 
got, I'll try not to wrap it in a napkin. When Deacon 



4p6 Gleams from Paul 's Prison. 

Mason does me good by one of his experience talks in 
prayer-meetin', I think it's no more than right he 
should know it. P'raps he has times of thinking that 
he can't say anything worth while, an' it Stan's to 
reason that he can talk better if he knows he is doing- 
somebody some good. And when Widder Hatch is 
making such a gritty fight to keep her children to- 
gether an' give 'em an education, I think mebbe it 
makes it a little easier for her to stand up to it if a 
neighbor drops a word of 'preciation once in a while.'* 
The minister said nothing, but there was a look of 
" *preciation " on his face : and Uncle Tim continued : 
" The other day I see the school-ma'am was lookin* 
worn out and sober-like. I 'magined them big boys 
from the Holler was worryin' the life out of her. An' 
I didn't know how I could help that. But at noon I 
just went down to the school-house a purpose to tell 
her how nice our grandson was gettin' along with his 
Vithmetic. An* she said it was better than a half-dozen 
cups of tea, for cheering her up — she did. An* when 
I see Sanford's boy take a little Irish girl's part that 
other boys were tormentin*, and they jeerin' him, I 
went up to him, and says, * Uncle Tim*s nothin' but a 
wood-sawyer, but he knows enough to see that you've 
got the stuff of a gentleman in you.' You see, old 
folks don't notice the young enough. An' there's Jim 
Brady, a drinkin*, card-playin', shootin'-match creetur, 
who goes around a good deal like a dog without a 
owner. He knows folks despise him. But Jim's 
right handy with tools, and when I take my saw to 



Alt Variance, 407 

him to have it filed, and tell him he does that job 
better'n any man I know, I think it helps him to have 
a little more respect for himself, I do. You see, it's 
dreadful easy to look at faults in hired folks, and 
tavern-keepers, and faults in prayer-meetin's. But, 
as I look at it, we'd do a great deal better to think 
more about the good things in 'em." 

Do you not think the talent of appreciation 
ever so much more Christian and worthy to 
be fostered than the talent for criticism? 
The one binds, the other breaks. 

Oh, how easily and how needlessly the 
beautiful unity of a church may be shatter- 
ed ; its work hindered ; the glory of that 
Master dimmed, Who said, By this shall all 
men know that ye are My disciples, if ye 
have love one to another.* 

Will you notice now, in the fourth place, 
the remedy for such variance. I exhort Euo- 
dia, and I exhort S3mtyche, that they be of 
the same mind in the Lord, Self-consecrating 
unity with Jesus, and therefore, since our 
Brethren and Sisters love the same Jesus, 



John xiii. 35. 



4o8 Gleams from PaiiVs Prison. 

unity with each other is the certain remedy 
for variance. By our love to a common 
Lord we are in deepest and holiest pledge 
to be in sweet charity toward each other. 

Will you notice now, in the fifth place and 
in the last, a Christian Duty, Yea, I beseech 
thee also, true yoke-fellow — we do not know 
to whom Paul refers — help these women 
which labored with me in the Gospel. 

The Christian duty is one of Help^ not 
toward variance, but from it toward Unity. 

When there is variance, then it is neither 
your duty nor mine, by giving fresh feathers 
to the wing of rumor, by promoting misun- 
derstandings instead of seeking to explain 
them, by a proud caring only for those who 
may move in our special set, by a harsh 
forcing of our conscientious scruples over 
on to other people, by a flaw-picking crit- 
icism, to help the Variance on and foster it ; 
rather it is your duty and mine, by courses 
of conduct exactly the opposite, to help the 
joining and the healing of the Variance. 

Oh! in the Home, in the Social Circle, 



At Variance, 409 

most of all in the Church of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, let us every one seek for the shining 
of this Beatitude upon our heads — Blessed 
are th^ peace-makers : for they shall be called 
the children of God.* Listen to the Script- 
ure condemnation of those who do other- 
wise. If any man thinketh himself to be 
religious, while he bridleth not his tongue^ 
but deceiveth his heart, this man's religion 
is vain.f These six things doth the Lord 
hate ; yea, seven are an abomination unto 
Him : A proud look, a lying tongue, and 
hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that 
deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be 
swift in running to mischief, a false witness 
that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord 
among Brethren,\ 

** Be not swift to take offence ; 

Let it pass ! 
Anger is a foe to sense : 

Let it pass ! 
Brood not darkly o'er a wrong 
Which will disappear ere long ; 



* Matthew v. 9. 

f James i. 26, Revised Version. 

X Proverbs vi. 16, 19. 



410 Gleams from PauVs Prison. 

Rather sing this cheery song — 
Let it pass ! 
Let it pass ! 

" Strife corrodes the purest mind ; 

Let it pass ! 
As the unregarded wind, 

Let it pass ! 
Any vulgar souls that live 
May condemn without reprieve ; 
'Tis the noble who forgive. 

Let it pass ! 

Let it pass ! 

" Echo not an angry word : 

Let it pass ! 
Think how often you have erred ; 

Let it pass ! 
Since our joys must pass away, 
Like the dewdrpps on the spray, 
Wherefore should our sorrows stay? 

Let it pass ! 

Let it pass ! 

*' If for good you've taken ill, 
Let it pass ! 
Oh ! be kind and gentle still : 

Let it pass ! 
Time at last makes all things straight ; 
Let us not resent, but wait, 



A t Variance. 411 

And our triumph shall be great ; 
*Let it pass ! 
Let it pass ! 

Bid your angei to depart, 

Let it pass ! 
Lay these homely words to heart, 

' Let it pass ! ' 
Follow not the giddy throng : 
Better to be wTonged than wrong ; 
Therefore sing the cheery song — 

Let it pass ! 

Let it pass ! " 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE NEARNESS OF THE LORD AND WHAT 
SHOULD COME OF IT. 

A S a kind of watchword, variously ap- 
-^-^ pearing in Paul's writings, occurs this 
expression — The Lord is at hand. It is a sort 
of proverb. It is a gathering up and con- 
densation of Paul's whole system of Theol- 
ogy, of the entire body of his religious 
teaching. It is, as well, a maxim for the 
daily life. 

Thus it does not stand alone. It is a seed 
planted and pushing up to bloom. It is in 
connection with much, and much should 
come of it. Because the Lord is at hand 
many things should follow. Read the 
Scripture, with which, in this Epistle to the 
Philippians, this watchword, this high 
maxim for the Christian life, is set in rela- 
tion : 

(41a) 



The Nearness of the Lord, 413 

.Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say rejoice. 
Let your moderation be known unto all men. The 
Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing ; but in every- 
thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let 
your requests be made known unto God, And the 
peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall 
keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. *^ 

So, then, this Fact that the Lord is at 
hand has to do with a Christian Rejoicing, 
and a Christian Self-control, and a Christian 
Freedom from Anxiety, and a Christian 
Peace. These are the beautiful and fragrant 
bloomings which should issue from it. 

This, then, is our thought for the present 
chapter — The nearness of the Lord and what 
should come of it. 

First, then, the Fact— M<? nearness of the 
Lord ; the Lord is at hand. 

In answer to those who so constantly in- 
terpret this expression as having sole refer- 
ence to the imminence of the Lord's second 
advent, it is enough to quote here the words 
of Dr. Hackett, than whom there is no 

* Philippians iv. 4, 5, 6, 7. 



414 Gleams from Paul's Prison. 

higher exegetical authority. This expres- 
sion " may mean that the Lord is ever near 
to His people as their efficient supporter 
and helper, so that, with such an arm to de- 
fend them, they have nothing to fear from 
the power and malice of their enemies ; or, 
more probably, that He is always near to 
them in point of time, will soon come to re- 
lieve them of their cares and trials, and re- 
ceive them to their appointed rewards and 
rest in Heaven. There is no necessary, cer- 
tainly no exclusive, reference here to a defi- 
nite expectation of the near advent of 
Christ, and the end of the world."* 

It is in these senses of nearness — the near- 
ness of constant presence, the nearness of 
support — that, it seems to me, we ought 
mainly to understand this common Apos- 
tolic maxim and watchword for the Chris- 
tian life, the Lord is at hand. 

The nearness of the Lord. That is a very 
noble sonnet of William Wordsworth's on 
the " World's Ravages '': 



* In Lange's Commentary, in loco. 



The Nearness of the Lord. 415 

** The world is too much with us : late and soon 
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers ; 
Little we see in Nature that is ours ; 
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon ! ^ 
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon ; 
The Winds that will be howling at all hours, 
And are upgathered now like sleeping flowers : 
For this, for everything, we are out of tune : 
It moves us not — Great God ! I'd rather be 
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn ; 
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, 
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn ; 
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea : 
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn." 

The poet means, I am sure, that any thought 
and sense of the Supernatural is better than 
no thought or sense at all. He would rather 
believe in a kind of divine Proteus, tending 
his flocks of seals, and able to foretell the 
future, or in a kind of divine Triton making 
music out of his conch-shells ; he would 
rather believe, even in a poor, dim, heathen 
way, in some sort of a Divine presence and 
a Divine care, than believe that this world 
and this awful and tremulous human life 
were just a pitiable getting and spending 



41 6 Gleams from PauVs Prison, 

machine and routine, with nothing whatever 
divine about them. 

And I am sure the poet sang the truth. 
The dimmest and most mistaken thought of 
the Divine Presence is better than a blank 
and hopeless denial of any Divine Presence.. 
The first mistake is a million times better 
than the last dreadful and atheistic mis- 
take. 

And it is not to be denied that toward 
just this last dreadful and atheistic mistake 
much of the thinking of our day, which ar- 
rogantly styles itself advanced and scien- 
tific, is tending. Take these words as 
symptoms : " Science has shown us that we 
are under the dominion of general laws, and 
that there is no special providence. Nature 
acts with fearful uniformity ; stern as fate, 
absolute as tyranny, merciless as death, too 
vast to praise, too inexplicable to worship, 
too inexorable to propitiate ; it has no ear 
for prayer, no heart for sympathy, no arm 
to save.'* 

Toward such a view of the Divine dis- 
tance^ it must be confessed, too much of the 



The Nearness of the Lord, 41 y^ 

world's thought is setting. It sees law 
and refuses to see God. It forgets, or 
will not learn that, as another says, " a law 
of nature is not an entity, neither is it a 
power ; iV can do nothing whatever. It is 
simply the mode of action of a force that 
lies behind it." Truer a modern poet's 
thought, addressing Deity : 

" The laws of Nature are but Thine. 
For Nature ! who is She ? 
A name — the. name that men assign 
To Thy sole alchemy.** 

But a real and reverent science, instead of 
making God distant, brings Him near. For 
instance, think of this. Here is oxygen. It 
is a perfectly colorless, transparent gas. 
Now, most gases you can reduce from the 
gaseous form into the liquid form by simple 
mechanical pressure. That is to say, you 
can squeeze the gas into the liquid or into 
the solid, if only you squeeze hard enough. 
But oxygen gas it is almost impossible to 
force and freeze into a liquid. A German 
chemist, Natterer* by name, subjected this 

* *' Religion and Chemistry," by J. P. Cooke, Prof, 
in Harvard University, revised edition, p. 72. 



4 1 8 Gleams from Paul ^s Prison. 



oxygen gas to a pressure of over forty-five 
thousand pounds, or twenty tons, to the 
square inch, but not even that enormous 
weight could change it from a gas to a 
liquid. But now, remember that between 
one-half and one-third of the rocks and soil 
which form the crust of this globe on which 
you stand is composed of oxygen, and that 
in these rocks and soils this gas is reduced 
to and held in a solid form ; remember, also, 
that from one-half to one-third of the bodies 
in which you dwell is composed of this same 
oxygen, and that in your- blood it is com- 
pressed to fluid form, and in other portions 
of your bodies to solid form ; remember, 
also, that eight-ninths of all the water in the 
world is also composed of this same oxygen 
gas, and that in water oxygen is reduced to 
and held in the fluid form ; and then, again, 
remember that twenty tons of pressure on a 
single square inch of oxygen gas are not 
enough to squeeze the poor square inch of gas 
from the form gaseous into the form fluid ; 
and then begin to gain a little faint and 
dim conception of the enormous force which 



The Nearness of the Lord. 419 

must be holding this same oxygen quietly 
imprisoned in all the rocks and in all the 
soils and in all the trees and in all the 
human bodies and in all the whelming 
rivers and lakes and oceans 'in the world. 
Now, science has a name for this awful and 
steady and pervasive force. Its name for 
this huge force is chemical • affinity. But 
when you have said chemical affinity, you 
have only suggested another question, 
namely, What is chemical affinity ? There 
an irreverent and godless science stops. 
Upon the brink of that question it is abashed 
and dumb. It can only mutter over and 
over its old vague answer, covering its igno- 
rance with cloudy words, chemical affinity, 
chemical affinity. But a reverent and God- 
honoring science — the science of a Kepler 
or of a Newton or of a Faraday — will an- 
swer you, while it kneels in the presence of 
the Unseen Holy, chemical affinity is the 
Will of God, with its easy power imprison- 
ing and constraining oxygen. And the 
better science to that end is tending steadily. 
It is recognizing behind gravity, and behind 



420 Gleams from PaiiVs Prison, 

magnetism, and behind chemical affinity, 
and behind all the other tremendous forces 
which play about us, the Will of God in 
which all things have their being. So, then, 
a true science does not make God distant. 
It brings Him near. It is the present energy 
of His present will which poises the earth, and 
causes the most ancient heavens to continue 
strong. The laws of Nature are but the 
steady modes of the action of the Divine 
Will. A right science shows us that the 
Lord is not distant, but at hand. 

Besides, the meaning of 'the Incarnation is 
that the Lord is near. I have read that the 
inscription which ancient Egypt engraved 
on the pediment of one of its most famous 
temples, to describe the Deity, was : ^* I am 
that which has been, and which is, and 
which is to be, and my veil no mortal hath 
yet drawn aside.'* " Who is He, then,*' as 
another asks, in the presence of this inscrip- 
tion, " who is, then, this almighty and invis- 
ible Being, of whose glory the heavens 
speak. Who fills all space with His presence, 
Who makes the universe His Temple, from 



The Nearness of the Lord. 421 

Whom all things proceed, to Whom they all 
return ? He asserts His existence, He awes 
us : but His face is mystery, and no mortal 
has yet been able to draw aside His veil."* 

Present He is in power. Near to us He 
is in the terrific and even uniformity of those 
modes of action of His will which we call 
the laws of Nature. But is He near in any 
other way? Has He heart? Does He pity? 
Does He love? Does He care? And the 
Incarnation drew aside the veil to tell us 
yes to all such questions. God came forth 
from behind the curtains of an infinite mys- 
tery ; He parted the hiding draperies of in- 
variable law ; He stood forth from an exist- 
ence so vast and spiritual as to be beyond 
our poor conception ; and in the Babe at 
Bethlehem, and in the life of suffering 
Brotherhood of which that birth atBethlehem 
was the gate. He laid open to us His Heart, 
He revealed to us the immeasurable abyss 
of His self-sacrificing iQve. And this is a 
main purpose of the Incarnation to assure 

* **The Son of Man," by Frank Conlin,. DiD;, pp. 
I, 2. 



422 Gleams from PattVs Prison. 

us that in self-burdening love, and in care 
unspeakable, the Lord is near. 

Nor is this all. Following the dispensa- 
tion of the Incarnation comes the dispensation 
of the Holy Spirit, whose peculiar office-work 
it is to assure us that the Lord is in constant 
and closest nearness. That Christ was born 
and suffered and died and rose again had 
been but history, something that belonged 
to the past ages, a finished fact like the bat- 
tle of Marathon or that of Actium, were it 
not for the ministry of the Holy Spirit. 
But that ministry transmutes all this from a 
finished fact into a present force, from a his- 
tory into an energy. '* It is not enough," as 
another says, "that we have the historical 
Christ. If our Lord carried back with Him 
all that He brought, and left behind Him 
only the memorials of His presence, then 
His coming was a failure. Without a living 
and present Christ Christianity is a thing of 
the past, it is dead." But now the Holy 
Spirit is a living and present Christ, illumi- 
nating the Scripture, persuading men, 
dwelling in men. And so, not in the more 



The Nearness of the Lord. 423 

general sense of the Divine omnipresence, 
but in the specific sense of a. personal, affec- 
tionate, guiding, guarding, illumining, in- 
terpenetrating, and indwelling special pres- 
ence the Lord, in the person of the Holy 
Spirit, is at hand. 

Here, then, are some proofs and snatches 
of the Fact of the Lord's nearness. The 
Lord IS at hand. A true science tells us so. 
The Incarnation means it. The ministry of 
the Holy Spirit enforces it. Remember 
those words of De Quincey : ^^ All men come 
into this world alone ; all leave it alone. 
Even a little child has a dread-whispering 
consciousness that if he should be summoned 
to travel into God's presence no gentle nurse 
will be allowed to lead him by the hand, 
nor mother to carry him in her arms, nor 
little sister to share his trepidations. King 
and priest, warrior and maiden, philosopher 
and child, all must walk those mighty gal- 
leries alone." True at once and false these 
solemn words. True in giving utterance to 
the fact that in our deepest selves we are 
alone, and must go on in life and into death 



424 Gleams from Paul's Prison. 



^ 



alone. Untrue, these words, in speaking of 
God's presence as of something we vausX. at 
last get into. No, the Lord is at hand. We 
are beset by the Lord's presence now. The 
lonely self is evermore attended by this 
Divine companion. Closer than the wrap 
of the mother's arms around her babe, more 
intimate than the mingling of mated souls 
in marriage, from tottering steps of infancy 
to tottering steps of age and through all the 
life between, and onward also through the 
dread and unknown change which we call 
death, we are held in the loving, caring, 
thoughtful clasp of the Divine Presence, we 
are embraced by the Divine Nearness. The 
Lord is at hand. 

Well, then, since this is true, since this 
should be a consciousness so constant that 
the Apostle enshrined it as a maxim and 
watchword for the daily life, what should 
come of it, what should be its fruitage ? 

This, first — since the Lord is near, Rejoice. 
Rejoice in the Lord alway ; again I will 
say, Rejoice. Strange words these from a 



The Nearness of the Lord. 425 

buffeted, harassed, imprisoned man. Strange 
words these from a man who could not lift 
his hand but that he must hear the harsh 
clank pf the iron chain which bound him to 
his Roman keeper. Strange words these 
from a man panting with unused energy, 
longing for action as a war-horse scents the 
battle, yet reined in as the precious years 
sped on. Strange words. Rejoice, and again 
I will say, Rejoice. And yet not so strange 
when you remember that his injunction 
is, Rejoice not in external things, but in 
internal; not in circumstances, but in the 
Lord. For from that Lord's nearness noth- 
ing could divide him ; not edicts of Emper- 
ors, not Roman guards, not clanking coup- 
ling-chains. All the time his Lord was at 
hand. Even as Mrs. Browning sings : 

*' All are not taken ; there are left behind 
Living Beloveds ; tender looks to bring. 
And make the daylight still a happy thing, 
And tender voices to make soft the wind. 
But if it were not so — if I could find 
No love in all the world for comforting, 
Nor any path but hollowly did ring, 



426 Gleams from Paul's Prison. 

Where Dust to Dust the love from life disjoined, 
And if, before those sepulchres unmoving, 
I stood alone (as some forsaken lamb 
Goes bleating up the moor in weary dearth), 
Crying, Where are ye, O my loved and loving? 
I know a voice would sound, Daughter, I AM \ 
Can I suffice for Heaven, and not for earth ?" 

The Sufficing One remains ! 

"Ruined/' he said, as, fleeing from the 
wrecks of a vast financial panic, h'e sought 
his home, to fling himself amidst it, wailing 
out, "ruined, ruined/' "Not ruined," she 
said, his wife, with her firmer faith and 
clearer vision. " Not ruined ; you have 
honor, you have your wife, you have your 
children — and you have God. Amid the 
wrecks and the disaster He is near." And 
the broken man bethought himself, roused 
by the music of her faithful speech. " Yes, 
all is not gone, I am not all ruined. God is 
near even amid this crash of fortune. In 
Him I can and will rejoice." And in the 
strength of the near God the disaster was 
at last repaired. 

This is what I have been saying, that 



The Nearness of the Lord. 427 

amid all circumstances the Lord is not dis- 
tant, He is near ; that neither prisons nor 
wrecks nor death can ever shake His near- 
ness ; and that in the certainty and the con- 
sciousness of that personal, loving, guard- 
ing, caring nearness, the deeper wells of the 
inner joy no outward thing can drain. 

It stands there, and against it drift the 
desert sands, and down upon it beats the 
desert sun ; and yet if, with Wordsworth, 
we can say, 

** And 'tis my faith that every flower 
Enjoys the air it breathes," 

how it rejoices in coronal of swaying leaf, 
and in benignant cluster of refreshing fruit. 
And the reason is, the palm has struck the 
deeper springs which underrun the desert. 

And for us, too, there is evermore the deep- 
er unfailing spring of the Lord's nearness. 
And the soul touched consciously by that, 
like Paul may say, even amid its prisons. Re- 
joice in the Lord, and again I will say, Re- 
joice. 

And the Christian life is just the life 



428 Gleams from PauVs Prison. 

which is sensitive to this Divine nearness. 
And so it ought to be a life strong in rejoic- 
ing, because its roots do reach beneath and 
away from the sands and sun. 

Petulant, complaining, moody, morbid, 
frowning, dark-brov/ed, criticising, hard, 
unlovely — how we disown and disgrace our 
Lord when we are thus in any wise. The 
Lord is at hand, and from that nearness no 
outward circumstance need rob us if we will 
have it so. The Lord is at hand, and out of 
this wondrous consciousness let there push 
up and out the bloom of Joy. 

Second, From the nearness of the Lord 
there should result a noble self-control. Let 
your moderation — your holding back upon 
yourself, your forbearance, your gentleness 
— be known unto all men — the Lord is at 
hand. Let it be known. Don't say anything 
about it, don't boast about it, let it announce 
itself as the wafted fragrance of the flower 
tells of its neighborhood. Remember you 
are in your Lord's presence, and, carrying 
yourself as in His sight, let the self-control- 
ling gentleness in which the constant 



The Nearness of the Lord. 429 

thought of Him must hold you make its 
own report unto all men. ^' Wilt thou be 
faithful if I buy thee ? '' asked a purchaser 
of a slave. *' Yes/' said the slave ; " whether 
you buy me or not." Noble answer. Faith- 
ful any way. Conscious of the nearness of 
his Lord, and so holding hiniself in strong 
yet gentle self-control. 

All graciousness and sweetness in society 
are how many Christians, but appearing, as 
Rowland Hill puts it, to be engrafted upon 
crab-trees in their own houses. There is no 
worse home-sin than a blurting, blustering, 
blistering, flaming temper. But because it 
is a home-'SA'w, that man who knows he will 
lose the bargain if he is not calm and cool 
in business, and for the sake of the business 
controls himself ; that woman who prizes 
the reputation of a sweet ladyhood, and for 
the .sake of society controls herself — at home, 
where the bargain is not made, and where 
society does not enter, and where the self is 
in. undress, flings loose rein upon the neck 
of' temper. Ah ! do they forget that the 
Lord is as near the home as the store or 



430 Gleams from PaitVs Prison, 



parlor ? As in those cases they can let their 
moderation be known, and for such sake, 
can they not, and ought they not to let it 
be known here for His sake ? Nay, ought 
not this consciousness of their Lord*s near- 
ness to overshadow all places and all times, 
and compel theni into a Christly gentleness 
in store, in social circle, in church, in home, 
in kitchen even — everywhere ? 

And just this sweet and solemn pressure 
of our Lord's nearness we need, O Friends, 
to hold us in gracious self-control amid the 
stinging harassments and abrading fric- 
tions of the minuter bothers of our lives. 
Some greater thing we plan and attempt for 
our Lord's sake, and are steady and patient 
and hopeful and persevering in it, because 
of the sweet consciousness that in it we are 
serving Him, and that all the time He 
broods above us with His close blessing. 
But there is many a Christian who could 
stand martyrdom at the stake, for whom a 
charred beef-steak, or ^ burnt biscuit, or a 
bad cup of coffee, or a good-natured, blun- 
dering servant or employe would be too 



The Nearness of the Lord. 431 

much altogether. But our Lord is as much 
at hand, and we are as much before Him, 
amid a swarm of New Jersey mosquitoes as 
when we preach our sermons, or teach our 
Sabbath-school classes, or worship in His 
sanctuary, or plan and work for missions, or 
endow a college. And what we need among 
the minuter annoyances of life which so 
often and so sadly unbind our self-control, 
as a little flickering match unhoops a barrel 
of gunpowder, is just this thought and con- 
sciousness that He is all the time at hand 
and that He holds us constantly in His eye. 
Gentleness— not passion, not complaint, not 
petulance — is the flower which should flour- 
ish in this Sacred Nearness. 

Third, Because of the Lord's nearness 
there should result a blessed Freedom fro7n 
Anxiety, The Lord is at hand, therefore be 
careful — anxious — for nothing. Is not this 
a right and Christian hymn to sing ? 

" I know not what shall befall me, 
God hangs a mist o'er my eyes, 
And so, each step of my onward path, 
He makes new scenes to rise^ 



432 Gleams from PauTs Prison. 

And every joy He sends me comes . 
As a sweet and glad surprise. 

** I see not a step before me, 
As I tread on another year ; 

But the past is still in God's keeping, 
The future His mercy shall clear, 

And what looks dark in the distance, 
May brighten as I draw near. 

'* For perhaps the dreaded future 
Has less bitter than I think ; 

The Lord may sweeten the waters 
Before I stoop to drink, 

Or, if Marah must be Marah, 
He will stand beside its brink. 

*' It may be He keeps waiting 

Till the coming of my feet 
Some gift of such rare blessedness. 

Some joy so strangely sweet, 
That my lips shall only tremble 

With the thanks they can not speak. 

** So I go on — not knowing ; 

I would not if I might ; 
I would rather walk in the dark with God 

Than go alone in the light ; 
I would rather walk with Him by faith 

Than walk alone by sight. 



The Nearness of the Lord. 433 

** My heart shrinks back from trials 
Which the future may disclose, 

Yet I never had a sorrow 

But what the dear Lord chose ; 

So I send the coming tears back 

With the whispered word, ^ He knvws.'' "'-^ 

And since His nearness is to run through 
all the future, and since no future can pos- 
sibly slip beyond His knowledge, why 
should I not enter into a glad and unbur- 
dened freedom, and in nothing be anxious ? 

Yes, why should I not ? you and I ask 
often of our faithless hearts ; why should I 
let myself be cut to pieces and frayed into 
such tangling shreds of miserable anxiety ? 

But to be anxious for nothing — ah ! there's 
the rub. I would not be so anxious and yet 
I am, even though, like cool winds in sultry 
noons, comes often the feeling of the Lord's 
nearness. 

But will you notice that the Apostle 
gives us the steps by which we may reach 
this great, glad, divine, free carelessness. 
See this direction. In nothing be anxious. 



* Mary G, Brainard. 
28 



434 Gleams from Paul's Prison. 

How ? Why, remembering that the Lord is 
near, in everything^ by prayer and supplica- 
tion, with thanksgiving, let your requests 
be made known unto God. In nothing anx- 
ious, because thus to the near Lord with 
everything ! 

By prayer: Since your Lord is thus at 
hand, it can not be unreasonable or illogical 
to pray. Tell Him, then, your daily wants. 
Go into your closet, and shut the door, and 
roll your burdens over on to Him. Do not 
think you can be an unanxious Christian if 
you refuse to be a praying one. Thus saith 
the Lord God : I will yet for this be in- 
quired of by the house of Israel to do it for 
them.* 

By supplication. Sometimes you are in 
special straits ; sometimes there is a peculiar 
and crushing burden ; sometimes a more 
awful fear, almost or quite a fact, points at 
you with bony finger, and frightens all your 
rest away. Well, then, meet special trouble 
with special supplication. This word suppli- 
cation means precisely this, a specializing 

* Ezekiel xxxvi. 37. 



The Nearness of the Lord, 435 

prayer which grapples with a distinct, sepa- 
rated, peculiar trouble, and beseeches the 
help of the near Lord ^ in that particular 
emergency and on that individual detail. 
Do not imagine that the near Lord is not 
enough for this great distinct trouble. 
Seize it by special prayer, and specially 
force it into His Presence and on to His 
shoulder. 

With thanksgiving. Bad as the advice of 
Eliphaz generally was to Job, it was right 
in this — He shall deliver in six troubles, 
yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee.* 
Think back gratefully over many a divine 
deliverance. Tell the near Lord your 
thanks. And as memory brings up the 
mercies of the past, you shall be filled with 
faith in the near Lord for the present and 
the future. The fruit of Thanksgiving is 
calm courage. 

And thus as you, concerning everything, 
by prayer and supplication make known 
your requests to this Lord who is at hand, 
you shall begin to find the flourishing of 

* job V. 19. 



436 Gleams front PaiiVs Prison, 

this glorious bloom of " a heart at leisure 
from itself," of a high and holy freedom 
from anxiety, because you are getting into 
the habit of letting this near Lord care. 
And since He cares^ what need of carking 
care for you ? 

And now, must not Peace come ? Because 
the Lord is at hand — and therefore rejoicing 
in Him, and therefore a steady^ and con- 
scientious self-control before Him, and 
therefore a freedom from anxiety bred of 
confiding prayer into that Ear within your 
whisper-reach, within your thought-reach, 
out of this can you get anything but a 
guarding Peace ? 

One night in the distant West I slept in 
camp when there was some danger from 
hostile Indians. I do not think there was 
any critical danger. But' there were rumors 
of hostile Indians all about, and there was 
danger enough to make me anxious. And 
as I lay there in my tent, I thought, yonder 
on that hill there is a soldier-sentinel, awake, 
alert ; and on that other hill there is an- 
other : and still on that other hill there is 



The Nearness of -the Lord. 437 

another. And so, as I thought of them, 
those sentinels came to stand to me for a 
guarding peace, and so I was soon quiet and 
asleep. 

And that is precisely the figure of this 
most wonderful Scripture. Because of the 
near Lord, and through such appropriation 
and use of Him as He longs to have you 
make, the Peace of God which passeth all 
understanding shall stand seiitinel round your 
hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus. 

Ah, if we would but remember more this 
Great Fact of our Lord's nearness, and de- 
termine to hold ourselves more steadily in 
the presence of its high inspirations, amid 
what fragrant and radiant blooms of Re- 
joicing, and of benignant Self-Control, and 
of grand Deliverance from a torturing Anx- 
iety, and of a guarding Peace, might we not 
continually walk. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

THINKING AND DOING. 

I HAVE read somewhere a very amusing, 
though, of course, exaggerated, story, 
which Charles Lamb tells of Samuel Taylor 
Coleridge. 

One morning, as Mr. Lamb was going to 
London by the Enfield stage, Mr. Coleridge 
seized him by the button, and began to dis- 
course. Having had much experience in it, 
Mr. Lamb was sure the talking would be 
endless. So he swiftly and quietly cut off 
the button by which Mr. Coleridge held 
him, and, mounting the stage, sped away to 
London. When he came back from London 
in the afternoon — there was Mr. Coleridge, 
in precisely the same attitude, discoursing 
on, holding the button with one hand and 
sawing the air with the other. 
(438) 



Thinking and Doing, 439 

The story is an exaggeration certainly, 
and yet it is an exaggeration of the truth. 
Possessed by his own thought, Mr. Cole- 
ridge had little care concerning the relation 
of that thought to others. Toward its 
practical issue and result he gave no heed. 
His speech was but audible musing. He 
was so absorbed in this, that whether he 
told it to Mr. Lamb or to the vacant air, it 
mattered not. 

And so Samuel Taylor Coleridge stands 
in literature as the dreamer ; as the man of 
vast and vague intention, but of compara- 
tively small outcome. He is the absorbed, 
idealizing, meditative thinker — great in 
often cloudy speculation, slight in concen- 
trated practical action. 

For an illustration of the tendency exactly 
opposite, let us go to the Scripture. 

David was at Mahanaim in exile. During 
the few days of respite, his followers, under 
the command of Joab,-had been organized. 
Absalom, the rebel, and in the thought of 
many the coming man, marches, sweeping 



440 Gleams from PaiiVs Prison, 

onward victoriously, from Jerusalem. Joab, 
with the loyal army, goes forth to meet him. 
At some distance from Mahanaim the battle 
clashes. Its result, you will remember, is 
the utter defeat and death of Absalom. 
More anxious than for victory, you will re- 
member, also, was David for the safety of 
his bad though well-beloved son. Now 
came the duty of bearing tidings to the dis- 
tant and waiting king. 

One Ahimaaz, the son of Zadok, was very 
anxious to be the courier. So he says to 
Joab, '^ Let me now run and bear the king 
tidings how that the Lord hath avenged 
him of his enemies." But for some reason 
Ahimaaz has not become conversant with 
the whole circumstances. He only knows, 
in a general way, that there has been a battle 
and a defeat of the enemy, bu4; of the partic- 
ular occurrences, and especially of the details 
of the death of Absalom, he knows nothing. 
, And so Joab answers, " Thou shalt not bear 
tidings this day, but thou shalt bear tidings 
another day." And then, turning to Cushi, 
who has the whole transaction definitely in 



Thinking and Doing. 441 

his mind, Joab says, " Go, tell the king what 
thou hast seen.'* And Cushi bowed himself 
unto Joab and ran. 

But Ahimaaz is not satisfied. He is 
bursting with activity. He knows he has 
not very much to tell, but he is bound to 
run, and with him the running is the main 
thing. So he comes pesteringly to Joab 
again, and pleads, "' But, howsoever, let me, 
I pray thee, also run after Cushi." And 
Joab answers, " Wherefore wilt thoic run, my 
son, seeing that thou hast no tidings ready ?'' 
But Ahimaaz is determined to run any w^ay 
— that is the chief thing with him, just the 
doing, just the running. And so he comes 
up to the charge again. " But, howsoever, 
let me run." I do not imagine that Joab 
was a man of very w^onderf ul patience. He 
would not allow himself to be bothered with 
much pestering. And so, half angry, and 
to relieve himself of what was getting to be 
a nuisance, Joab simply answers, *^ Run." 

Well, there was this much to be said for 
Ahimaaz, "he was a good runner, even though 
he had nothing very special to run for, and, 



442 Gleatns from Paul 's Prison. 

having chosen a shorter way, he soon quite 
overran Cushi. 

Meantime, the king was sitting in the 
tower over the gate, and the watchman, 
climbing to its highest point, saw a man 
running alone. And the watchman cried 
and told the king. And the king said, " If 
he be alone there is tidings in his mouth.'' 
Then, a little after, another runner is de- 
scried. And the watchman said, " Methink- 
eth the running of the foremost is like the 
running of Ahimaaz, the son of Zadok." 
The watchman is right. It is he. As he 
gets into the neighborhood of the king he 
calls out, ^^All is well," and then, coming 
nearer, he falls down to the earth upon his 
face before the king, and says, " Blessed be 
the Lord thy God, which hath delivered up 
the men that lifted up their hand against 
my lord the king." 

But the king is hungry for a more special 
message. This Ahimaaz knew well enough, 
for Joab had told him so before he started. 
And so the king replies anxiously, " Is the 
young man Absalom safe ?" But precisely 



Thinking and Doing. 443 

that critical question Ahimaaz can not an- 
swer. He knew he could not when he would 
turn his face toward Mahanaim. But still 
he was set, not so much on telling what 
needed to be known, not so much on run- 
ning to a purpose, as on I'ltnning. Thus all 
he can say to the tremulous king is, "When 
Joab sent the king's servant, and me, thy 
servant, I saw a great tumult, but I knew 
not what it was.'* And then the king said 
unto him, "Turn aside and stand here." 
And he turned aside and stood still. And 
that was all that came of his clattering 
doing and tremendous running. He simply 
ran — and that was the w^hole of it, and so he 
ran for nothing. It was not until Cushi, 
the man who had a real message, and so the 
man whose running amounted to something, 
came up, that the waiting king could learn 
the facts his heart was hungriest to know.* 

Now, this man Ahimaaz represents an- 
other very common and opposite tend- 
ency in our human nature — the tendency 
toward the doing simply, toward an external 

■^ 2 Samuel, chapter xviii. 



444 Gleams from Paul's Prison, 

bustling, hurrying, scattering, inconsequen- 
tial, empty activity. And of such sort, be- 
cause there is no substantial thought behind 
it, no distinct, meditated, thorough errand 
on to which the action pushes. 

Shading off variously toward the one ex- 
treme illustrated by Mr. Coleridge, or to- 
ward the other illustrated by Ahimaaz, there 
are Christians. 

There are Christian dreafners, who, in vari- 
ous ways, think much, but do little. 

There are Christians who think much 
doctrmally, A precise and cut-and-dried 
orthodoxy is the eminent thing with them. 
They will allow no chance for freedom of 
opinion. They will give no leeway to dif- 
ferences of temperament, or to degrees of 
development, or to variousness of education. 
They set a mark which everybody must toe 
or be esteemed a reprobate. Usually it is 
some one special point upon which they fix 
their exclusive thought, like the doctrine of 
election, or the return of the Jews, or pre- 
cisely their notion of the temperance ques- 
tion. The whole of Christianitv for them is 



Thinking and Doing, 445 

crystallized into and symbolized by this one 
thing. When you beseech them for Chris- 
tian action, in a personal evangelizing to- 
ward their neighbors, in the teaching of a 
Sabbath-school class, in the practice of a 
high and loving Christian life —they turn 
aside from such things as from most small 
and trivial matters. Is he sound ? — mean- 
ing, of course, sound according to their no- 
tion of soundness — is their one question and 
single criterion. 

There are Christians who think much 
experimentally. They dream about a present 
and personal sinlessness. They profess a 
perfection which nobody can discover in 
them but they themselves. They are all 
the time seeking to abide upon the mount- 
ain, where, with Peter, they can say — Lord, 
it is good for us to be here ; here let us 
build our booths and stay. But when you 
ask them to go down with their Lord to the 
tortured demoniac at the mountain's foot, 
to do what they can to ease the pain and lift 
the burdens of sorrow from the shoulders of 
the sad world — for that they have slight 
relish. 



44^ Gleams from PauVs Prison, 

There are Christians who think much 
sentijneiitally . A church service is to them a 
kind of Lotus-land. They enjoy vastly the 
rest and seclusion of religious worship. 
They dote on sermons. They open their 
souls, as flowers do their petals to the sum- 
mer breezes, that they may be swept by ex- 
quisite and exact church music ; a false 
note, a little tangle of discord, is the worst 
possible sin to them. Their sensibilities 
are exquisitely delicate. They flourish in 
dim religious lights and long-drawn aisles. 
A communion cloth of the true ecclesiastical 
color and rightly embroidered will put them 
into ecstasies. But when you suggest to 
them a little real action — for example, the 
bringing others into the sanctuary, the at- 
tempt to win others to the preaching of the 
word, the definite service of the visitation 
of the sick, or of a Sabbath-school class, 
then they sigh and faint, and declare they 
have no influence, and, like the nautilus 
when you touch him, withdraw into the 
beauty and iridescence of their own shells. 

Dreamers these and such as these, dwell- 



Thinking and Doing. 447 

ing only in the realm of the inward thought 
and careless that their thinking comes to 
nothing. They are like Mr. Coleridge hold- 
ing on to Charles Lamb's button and talk- 
ing on and sawing the air, as willing to talk 
to vacancy as to a man. 

Then, on the other hand, there are Ahi- 
viaaz Christians, who care nothing for the 
message, but only for the running. . They 
are in the stir of a perpetual activity. They 
are as difficult to put your hand on as on a 
ground squirrel dashing along a fence-rail. 
They are breathless with exertion. Let the 
little bird in the air carry to them news of a 
new-fangled temperance or revival meeting 
within fifty miles, and quicker than a tele- 
gram they are there. There is not a com- 
mittee within the circle of a hundred miles 
of which they are not members. Tell them 
of something to be done in their own church 
— they have no time, they are so pressed 
and busy with engagements. Tell them 
that they are not growing, that they are 
rising into no stronger, richer grasp of 
Christian truth, that a meditative solitude 



448 Gleams front Paul 's Prison. 

now and then, a little poring over the pages 
of the Scripture would be good for them, a 
little closer care of the message, and — you 
have affronted them, or they excuse them- 
selves because they are running so. These 
are Ahimaaz Christians. 

How different the Apostolic ideal for a 
real Christian : 

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, what- 
soever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, 
whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are 
lovely, whatsoever things are of good report ; if there 
be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on 
these things. Those things, which ye have both 
learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me> do : 
and the God of peace shall be with you.* 

Think on these things ; as the New Ver- 
sion has it, These things do. In the Apos- 
tle*s thought, these two, the Thinking and 
the Doings must be married and forevermore 
refused divorce. 

So, then, there are for us these lessons for 
the Christian life. 



Philippians iv. 8, 9. 



Thinking and Doing, 449 

First. The Christian must he one who thinks. 
Think on these things. And this word 
*Hhink " is a very strenuous one. It means 
to think upon, to consider, to hold speech 
concerning in one's own mind. Perhaps as 
good a word to tell its meaning as we can 
iind is meditation. A Christian must be one 
who^ in quiet, and with himself, and with- 
drawn from and undisturbed by external 
and clattering activity, waits in meditation. 
While I was musing the fire burned,* says 
the Psalmist. And then, again, he says, I 
thought on my ways and turned my feet unto 
Thy testimonies.f And if there were more 
of such musing and thinking, there would 
not be such piles of dead, cold cinders on 
the hearths of Christian hearts, nor so many 
laggard and straggling steps in the way of 
the Divine testimonies. 

But of what must the Christian think ? 
Let us run through, for a moment, the 
great and precious catalogue of the subjects 
for Christian thought which the Apostle, 
hereabouts, suggests. 



* Psalm xxxix. 3. \ Psalm cxix. 59, 

29 



45^ Gleams from PatiVs Prison. 

Whatsoever things are true. True, that is, 
in the widest sense — the great, staple, 
changeless truths of the Divine Revelation, 
also the truth of a thorough and shining 
sincerity in thought and speech and deed. 
The real things in doctrine and in duty, on 
these let your thoughts fasten, I knew a 
man once, who, instead of keeping his 
thoughts upon the true, kept them on the 
human and, as they are sometimes called, 
scholarly objections to the true. Instead of 
listening to hear what Christ said, he kept 
ear attent to hear what some German 
rationalist like Strauss, or some French ro- 
mancer like Renan, had to say against 
Christ. And the result w^s, he very soon 
made shipwreck of his faith ; not because 
there was not sufficient in the truth to an- 
swer all objections, but because he would 
not give himself chance to hear what the 
truth had to tell him. This is a very com- 
mon temptation for young men in these 
doubting and criticising days of ours — in 
their thinking and their reading they turn 
main attention to the human assaults upon 



Thinking and Doing, 45 1 

the true. But the Apostle says, No, what- 
soever things are true, think on these. The 
best way to detect iron pyrites is to study 
gold, then iron pyrites can not cheat you. 
Keep your thought, then, steadily on the 
golden true. 

Whatsoever things are honest ^ honorable, as 
the New Version has it, seemly, such things 
as are in accord with the high and holy 
character of a Christian man. Do not think 
on the dishonorable and unseemly things 
in which some who, though they profess 
and call themselves Christians, may allow 
themselves, that you may potter about your 
conscience with the devil's argument — 
they, carrying the Christian name, do such 
things, therefore I may do them. Nay, 
keep your thought so fixed on the consist- 
ent, the seemly, the honorable, that, entranc- 
ed with their beauty, you shall disdain with 
a most noble scorn different and staining 
things. 

Whatsoever thiitgs are just ; righteous, that 
is, in the highest and most emphatic senses. 
Such things in business as have no twist 



452 Gleams from Paul's Prison. 

and taint ; such things in social intercourse 
as, like the sunlight clearing away the 
mists, can not endure and will not suffer the 
clouding innuendo or the malarious scandal. 

Whatsoever things are pure ; stainlessly 
chaste. The vile suggestion, the putrescent 
double meaning, the loose talk into which 
men sometimes fall when they are not re- 
strained by the sanctities of a woman's 
presence — from such things, quick as you 
would turn your steps from the rattle and 
hiss and ready fangs of a rattlesnake, turn 
your thoughts to things most chastely white. 

Whatsoever things are lovely ; lovable, that 
is, winning and attractive. You have no 
right as a Christian to be hard, jagged, un- 
beautiful. He was right who said Jesus 
Christ was the truest of gentlemen. You 
have no right to be bizarre in dress, either 
as toward a hideous plainness or a miser- 
able slovenliness on the one hand, or as to- 
ward a gaudy and untasteful glare and 
glitter on the other. You have no right to be 
harsh in temper, glum, and sticking with 
quills of prejudice or of sudden passion, like 



Thinking and Doing. 453 

a porcupine when he is angry. You have 
no right to be in manner cold, reserved, dis- 
tant, as though no one else were worthy 
touching you. You are to be lovable, 
gracious, so that your presence is benedic- 
tion. That you may be, think on whatsoever 
things are lovely. 

Whatsoever things are of good report ; that 
is, the well-spoken-Oi, the well-reputed. It 
is wrong for you to say you are so inde- 
pendent that you do not care a straw w^hat 
people think of you or say of you. You 
ought to care. For the sake of Christ you 
ought to care. He said, though He was 
under no obligation to pay tribute, JVot- 
withstanding^ lest we should offend them, go 
thou to the sea and cast an hook and take 
up the fish that first cometh up ; and when 
thou hast opened his mouth thou shalt find 
a piece of money ; that take and give unto 
them for me and thee.* And who are you, 
that you should say, in the presence of the 
constant courtesy of the Master, that you 
will not care what others think or say ? Nay, 

■•'* Matthew xvii. 27. 



454 Gleams from PaiiVs Prison, 

care. Be courteous. That you may be, 
study the well-reputed things. 

If there be any virtue^ if there be a?iy praise, 
that iSy anything deserving praise. What things 
soever anywhere are virtuous and praiseful, 
even the old heathen notion of a grand man- 
fulness, for example, think on these things. 

A Christian is one who, concerning doc- 
trine, concerning" the noblest carriage of 
himself, concerning his relations to others, 
is to be always occupied with the highest, 
holiest, most gracious, most winning think- 
ings. 

The Christian must be one who thinks. 

Second. The Christian viiist be also one who 
does. Such things as these which I have 
taught you and which also I have striven to 
set forth by example in your presence — do, 
says the Apostle. 

The Christian may not be one who dwells 
in the realm of thought exclusively or in the 
realm of action exclusively ; he must be one 
who dwells in both realms. He must think 
that he may do. If the seed of his high 



Thinking and Doing, 455 

thinking do not push up and out and bring 
forth the fruit of action after its kind, it is 
of little worth. Said Savonarola, " One 
only knows that which he practices." They 
asked Joan of Arc what virtue she supposed 
dwelt in her white standard, wishing to ac- 
cuse her of magic. ^' I said to it," she an- 
swered, *^ go boldly among the English, and 
then / followed it inyself^ So, lifting the 
standard of white thoughts, must the Chris- 
tian himself follow them into white action. 
Thinking and doing — not thinking alone, 
nor doing alone, but both together — must go 
to make the genuine Christian life. 

Consider Jesus, how perfectly He united 
in Himself the necessary meditative side 
and the necessary practical side of the true 
life. Rising a great while before day, when 
work so thronged upon Him He could get 
no other tim.e. He sought the mountain sol- 
itude for communion with the Father ; then 
through the day, "unhasting and unrest- 
ing," He went about doing good. 

Think on these things, these things do. 
So only can we 



45^ Gleams from Paul's Prison. 

'* Make our branches lift a golden fruit 
Into the bloom of Heaven." 

''Think the good, 

And not the clever ; 
Thoughts are seeds 

That grow : forever 
Bearing richest fruit in life. 
Such alone can make 
The thinker 
Strong to conquer in the strife. 

'^'Do the good, 

And not the clever ; 
Fill thy life 

With true endeavor ; 
Strive to be the noblest man. 
Not what others do, 
But rather 
Do the very best you can." 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE STRENGTHENING CHRIST. 

TO these Philippians the Apostle makes 
a very remarkable statement concern- 
ing the peculiar ability of our Religion to 

impart Power, 

I can do all things through Christ which strength - 
eneth me.* 

And this is a distinctive glory of our 
faith. Not only does it tell men what to 
do, it gives them strength to do the thing 
it tells. Christianity is both precept and 
an internal victorious force. Through ac- 
ceptance of it, not only is man's sin forgiven, 
but also his moral weakness is thrust aside 
by vigor. In place of the cry of helpless- 
ness — O wretched man that I am, who shall 



* Philippians iv. 13. 

(457) 



458 Gleams from Paul's Prison. 

deliver me from the body of this death ? — 
there is in Christianity for that same broken 
man the triumph born of the sense of an in- 
breathed and interpenetrating Divine power 
— I thank God through Jesus Christ our 
Lord.* 

No one was more sensitive to personal serv- 
ice and favor than was the Apostle. Toward 
him no one could turn in the slightest way 
of loving deed, that he was not met instant- 
ly with the kindliest courtesy of recognition 
and of thankfulness. As the buds upon 
the leaf-branch burst at the touch of the 
spring air, so he broke forth in perpetual 
and particular expression at any breath of 
a helping love. 

If any of you are apt to be somewhat glum, 
and unresponsive in sweet and ready thanks 
for what is done for you by others ; if any of 
you, amid the strain and hurry of life, are 
growing careless of a tender and mindful 
courtesy ; if any of you are falling into the 
bad habit of taking what is done for you at 
home as matters of course, because you are 

* Romans vii. 24, 25. 



The Strengthening Christ. 459 

the head of the house, and, as its chief mag- 
nate, ought certainly to be waited on ; if you 
are expecting such personal services as your 
mere right, and receiving them as a granite 
boulder does the sunshine, making no reply 
of soft grass or fragrant flower, I do not 
know better reading for you, to show you 
how wrong and rude you are, than the last 
chapters of Paul's epistles. Mark there his 
mindful mention of this one and that other 
and that other, of Euodia, and Syntyche, 
and Clement, of Epaenetus well beloved, of 
Mary who bestowed much labor on us, of 
Amplias my beloved in the Lord, of Urbane 
our helper in Christ, of Apelles approved in 
Christ ; mark there how instant and partic- 
ular is the Apostle's recognition of the 
slightest service, and learn, if you are in 
any wise the man or woman I have hinted 
at, that the highest kind of Christianity is the 
readiest and the tenderest courtesy. I have 
known of parents who thought it beneath 
their parental dignity to thank or praise 
their, children — poor parents and to-be- 
pitied children. That is a meagre religion 



460 Gleams from Paul's Prison. 

which does not bloom into gracious cour- 
tesy. 

So here, in the closing words of this Epis- 
tle to the Philippians, Paul goes on to tell 
his thanks for their kind memory and care 
of him. You will remember that the Phi- 
lippians had been mindful that now, since 
imprisonment had tied the hands of the 
tent-maker, he could not win in Rome his 
daily bread, and for his necessity had lov- 
ingly sent contribution to him by Epaph- 
roditus. So Paul replies, But I rejoiced in 
the Lord greatly, that now at the last your 
care of me hath budded out again, and I 
knew that before this you would have done 
it, but you could not, you did not have 
opportunity. And yet I would not have 
you understand that my thanks to you 
spring out of the mere filling of my tempo- 
ral want ; I would not have you suppose 
that I can not endure want. Rather under- 
stand that there is a noble power of inde- 
pendency furnished by Christ's Gospel. I 
have learned a wonderful lesson. I have 
learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith 



The Strengthening Christ, 461 

to be content. I know both how to be 
abased and I know how to abound. In every- 
thing and in all things I have learned the 
secret both to be filled and to be hungry, 
both to abound and to be in want. I am 
independent of external circumstances. I 
have internal resource. I am dowered with 
internal strength. And then the Apostle 
rises to the grand and wonderful statement 
of the power-imparting ability of a Chris- 
tian faith. / can do all things through Christ 
which strengtheneth nie,^ 

Nor was this an empty boast of Paul's — 
easy and great upon the lip, but breaking at 
the touch of trial in the life. The life 
shows it to have been a statement of the 
solidest sincerity and reality. 

Notice a few particulars. 

How hard it is to courageously and hope- 
fully and unweariedly strike at an apparently 
impossible duty. What a girding of energy a 
man needs to go at it and keep at it. In 
such a land as ours, where the very air is 
Christian, and where the sw^eet clangor of 

^ Philippians iv, 10, 13. 



462 Gleams from Paul 's Prison. 

the church-bells flings out music every Sun- 
day, it is quite impossible for us to make 
actual to ourselves the enormous and, to 
human sight, hopeless difficulty which con- 
fronted Paul as he went forth to attempt to 
win the men of Athens and Corinth and 
Ephesus and Philippi and Rome to Christ. 
A celebrated writer has so well and con- 
cisely stated the difficulties, that I will let 
him tell them : (i) " The first teachers of 
Christianity were treading a path never 
trodden by any one before, and their work 
involved the uprooting of the habits of sin 
and idolatry, and the dissipation of ideas 
acquired in childhood. (2) There was the 
moral corruption of the large cities ; the 
Greeks had no taste for moral improve- 
ment ; the death of Socrates had brought 
no blessing to Athens. (3) The hero of the 
Greeks was the man who entertained them 
with sophistry, and this was exactly contrary 
to this Gospel ; Christ crucified, to them 
was folly. (4) The difficulty of overcoming 
the prejudices and opposition of the Jews 
was enormous ; they could only become 



TJte Strengthening Christ. 463 

Christians in company with the Heathen, 
and with the certainty of their relatives be- 
coming their enemies ; and besides this, 
they were banded together by the associa- 
tions of trade, and in them the spirit of per- 
secution was innate and hereditary/' Yet, 
confronted by such difficulties, how high 
was the courage, and unwavering the hope, 
and unflagging the persistence of the Apos- 
tle. Napoleon said there shall be no Alps, 
and set his armies to make a road. But 
Paul had no armies. He was only the 
despised preacher of a despised faith. Yet 
he set himself, not at making a road over 
the Alps, but at leveling the Alps. And he 
set himself at it, and he succeeded, not be- 
cause he was sure of competence in himself, 
but simply and solely because he was sure 
of a competence imparted by Jesus Christ 
his Lord. ^ ~ " 

Notice again. Milton sings — 

** They also serve 
Who only stand and wait.'* 

And what he sings is true. But he does not 
go on to tell us, what you and I know well 



464 Gleams from Paid ' s Prison, 

enough, that this service of waiting is often 
the hardest possible ; that for a strong en- 
ergy it is immensely easier to spend itself in 
action than to hold itself repressed in de- 
lay. There is many a hero, prisoner of 
some disease which, while it does not kill 
the sense of energy, does chain the energy ; 
there is many a hero of this sort, whose 
heroism of a passive but cheerful waiting is 
tremendously more difficult than that of 
the most exhausting and self-sacrificing 
service of action. But as Paul was able 
through Christ for the hardest action, so 
was he able for the most sunny and cheer- 
ful waiting while long imprisonment crowd- 
ed back his exhaustless desire to range the 
world for Jesus' sake. There, in the worst 
and lowest quarter of Rome, where through 
the streets flowed such a vile and various 
populace as makes Tacitus call Rome the 
" sewer of the universe," Burrus, to whom 
the prisoner Paul had been consigned, al- 
lowed him, pending the hearing of his ap- 
peal to Caesar, to live in his own hired 
apartment. ^^ Any one," says Canon Farrar, 



The Strengthenmg Christ, 465 

" entering that mean and dingy room would 
have seen a Jew with bent body and fur- 
rowed countenance, and with every appear- 
ance of age, weakness, and disease, chained 
by the arm to a Roman soldier. But it is 
impossible that, had they deigned to look 
closer, they should not also have seen the 
gleam of genius and enthusiasm, the fire of 
inspiration, the serene light of exalted hope 
and dauntless courage upon those withered 
features." 

Just at this time there was living an ora- 
tor, a philosopher, a man of the widest 
wealth and reputation — Seneca by name— 
who a few years before had been exiled to 
the island of Corsica. But that exile broke 
down all his philosophy and all his manhood. 
There is no sadder page in history than 
that which tells of the whining and wallow- 
ing sycophancy of Seneca, if by any means 
the most loathsome flattery may oil the 
hinges of his imprisoning exile. He calls 
the Emperor Claudius a god, so that he 
may be let out. But no sooner is Claudius 
dead, than the vile epithets Seneca heaps 
30 



466 Gleams from Paul's Prison. 

upon him hasten to show how cringing and 
unmanly Seneca was willing to become if, 
like a dog, he could only lick the hand of 
Claudius into opening his gates of exile. 

Not so Paul. The dreary waiting of a 
long imprisonment can not change or crush 
him. As for the duty of active service, so 
for the discipline of harder and passive 
waiting is he furnished with an inner and 
conquering strength. He will see the bless- 
ed light playing even on these prison walls. 
Though he is bound, the word of God is not 
bound. He rejoices as he begins to dis- 
cover how his bonds tend rather to the fur- 
therance than the hindrance of the Gospel. 
Whether in life or in death he is only anx- 
ious that now, as always, Christ shall be 
magnified in his body. This Paul, whom 
no apparently impossible active duty could 
in the least discourage, neither can a wearing 
and weakening imprisonment in the least 
daunt. Competent for doing, he is compe- 
tent for waiting too. 

Notice again. There is nothing more an- 
noying and strength-breaking than diperpet- 



I 



The Strengthening Christ, 467 

ual physical pain andhiiidrance. It is hard for 
the soul to make sweet music when it has 
only broken and jangling cords to strike. 
Close is the dependence of the spiritual upon 
the physical. It is difficult to be noble 
when you are thrust through with ignoble 
pangs. Strained and tortured nerves do 
not naturally minister to self-control. To be 
sick is not the best way to become saintly. 
There is religion in good health as there is 
swiftness in a smooth road ; it is easier to 
be religious when damp, chill fogs of phys- 
ical infirmity do not shut down upon the 
spirits. 

Now, though we are very apt to forget it, 
when we think of that magnificently over- 
coming and crowned life, Paul Vv^as a con- 
firmed invalid — he was a constantly sick 
man. He was pierced by the pain and hin- 
dered by the presence of a perpetual infirm- 
ity. Nor was it a sickness which grew bet- 
ter ; his sickness stayed. Some physical 
hindering trouble, very real and very grave, 
is meant by that graphic phrase, " thorn in 
the flesh.*' And yet Paul is furnished with 



468 Gleams from Paul's Prison, 

an inner strength which baffles that also. 
He does not succumb. He does not grow 
petulant. He does not complain. He does 
not find excuse in it for being less or doing 
less. Rather he compels this into a minis- 
tering toward spiritual vigor. This can not 
conquer him, he conquers it. He so con- 
quers it that he is glad for it. This is what 
he says — Most gladly, therefore, will I 
rather glory in my infirmities that the power 
of Christ may rest upon me.* 

This Paul, before whom can be set no 
duty he will not dauntlessly attempt, whom 
no wearing imprisonment can break down, 
can be stopped neither in his victorious 
way by a piercing, thorny, physical malady, 
dragging at the spirits and weakening with 
a chronic invalidism. Amidst all he is king, 
and he is king over all. 

And the words at the head of the 
chapter are the explanation of such grand,* 
rare sovereignty. / can do all things through 
Christ which strengtheneth me. 

Natice that such strong kingship comes not 

* 2 Corinthians xii. 9. 



The Strengthening Christ. 469 

through the self, but through Christ. It is 
not because of an inherent ability ; it is be- 
cause of an imparted ability. I can do all 
things — not in myself, but through Christ 
which strengtheneth me. 

That is a most expressive symbol which 
has been so often found rudely engraven on 
the rings and seals which have been picked 
up in the catacombs at Rome, where the 
early Christians buried their dead, and 
where subsequently they sought refuge from 
persecution — from the burning stake, and 
the boiling oil, and the arena raging with 
wild and hungry beasts. The symbol is 
that of a lamb standing on the back of a 
fish. Interpret it, and it holds precisely the 
meaning of our Scripture. A common 
symbol for Christ in the catacombs is a 
fish. The reason is that the initial letters of 
the Greek word fish, ^Ixdv^, read as an acros- 
tic, are the first letters of each of the names 
of Christ in Greek, Irfacv^ jpztjro;' f)sov 
Tio^ ^GDrrjp — Jesus Christ, God's Son, 
Saviour. Thus by the symbol of a fish, as 
an ancient Father savs, the name of Christ is 



470 Gleams from Paul 's Prison. 

mystically designated. And a Lamb ? Why, 
that is a common Scriptural designation for 
a believer. And the lamb standing on the 
fish ? Now the interpretation is plain, that 
means the weak believer supported by 
Christ. And it was not because they were 
so strong and great in themselves, it was 
because they were so strong and great 
through the supporting Christ, that those 
early Christians were mightier than the 
flame of faggot, or the horrid grip of the 
starved lions, or the solid darkness of those 
subterranean catacombs, by the inward 
shining of the soul making them radiant 
with a light " which never shone on sea or 
land." 

How, then, does Christ lift into such glo- 
rious empire, making men inwardly so 
strong? In many ways, of which I have 
not time to tell, save of two only. 

Christ gives such inward power by His 
revelation to men oi A Particular Providence. 
Dr. Guthrie relates a very wonderful story 
of his Scotch country parish. In a little 
Scotch cottage in that parish there lived a 



The Strengthening Christ, 471 

decent widow, but rendered so helpless by 
paralysis that she could do nothing what- 
ever for herself, nor ever come to church. 
Her daughter worked in a flax-mill hard 
by, and dutifully supported her mother, to- 
gether with herself. There was much ref- 
use thrown out from the mill ; and in their 
poverty this refuse was seized upon as fuel. 
It was the daughter's habit, as she left the 
cottage each day, to heap up the refuse in 
the grate, and, kindling it, place her help- 
less mother in her chair directly before the 
fire, and there, as the fuel burned slowly, 
the helpless mother was kept comfortable 
until the hours of work were done and the 
daughter could return. One day Dr. Guth- 
rie started to visit this physically helpless 
Christian. But on his way he met another, 
parishioner, with whom he fell into earnest 
talk about some important matter, and 
stopping there, sitting on a bank of thyme, 
went talking and talking on. Then, he 
says, he felt that he must cut his conversa- 
tion short, and go on to see that widow. 
But the conversation was important and 



4/2 Gleams from PauVs Prison. 

interesting, and he dismissed the thought. 
The impression again recurred, and again, 
and again, and was dismissed as often. 
But still recurring, he determined to obey 
the feeling, and as possessed by an uncon- 
trollable impulse hastened to the cottage. 
As he entered he saw a sight of terror. This 
refuse fuel, which had been heaped by the 
careful daughter's haijd several feet up the 
chimney, by the fire burning at its base had 
had its foundations eaten out, and had 
fallen forward on to the floor, surrounding 
the poor paralyzed woman by a ring of fire. 
She had cried out, but there was no one 
near to hear. And there she sat, with white 
face, chained by paralysis, unable to lift a 
hand, while the fire kept creeping nearer. 
Just as Dr. Guthrie entered it was about to 
seize her clothing, and wrap her helpless in 
its flame. " Ere it caught,*' he says, " I had 
time, and no more, to make one bound from 
the door to the hearth-stone^ and seizing 
her, chair and all, in my arms, to pluck her. 
from the jaws of a cruel fiery death." 

Now, Dr. Guthrie says, what every Chris- 



The Strengthening Christ. 473 

tian ought to say, that however men may 
talk about the laws of Nature and this inva- 
riable order of sequence and that^ that nar- 
row rescue was somehow because Christ had 
set His guarding providence around that 
helpless Christian, " Be it mine," he says, 
"''to live and die in the belief of a present 
and presiding as well as personal God ; in 
the faith which inspired my aged friend to 
thank Him for her wonderful deliverance^ 
and the boy to explain his calm courage aa 
the roaring deep in thes-e simple but grand 
words : ' My Father is at the helm.' " ^• 

And it is by His revelation of a FrQvi^- 
dence as attentive and particular ijs; thNat 
seen in this instance that Christ make^ 
Christians strong. They are not: tte 3^p(>r:t 
of chance, the buffeted of pttitessL bBnci 
forces, the helpless corn grinding Jn. th.^ 
mills of law. The very hairs of tbre^ir h.Qadl% 
are all numbered. What comes to them \% 
permitted or appointed by tfee- Pie:re:e<i 
Hand. Christ does not airways appmn-t: rro-- 
lief and rescue. It may be that. He; 



* a 



Out of Harness," pp. 3Q^H, 



474 Glea^ns from Paul's Prison. 

appoint the preaching to the skeptical, 
scoffing crowd at Athens, or the shipwreck 
at the island Malta, or the long waiting as 
a prisoner in the gloomy room at Rome ; it 
may be that the Lord's surgery for the sake 
of spiritual health shall be by means of a 
thorn in the flesh lacerating and piercing ; 
the awful stake of martyrdom, or the wild 
beasts of the arena, or the dense blackness 
of the subterranean refuge of the catacombs 
may also be His permission or appoint- 
ment ; but since these things and such as 
these are from JIt?n, not from a horrid and 
cruel chance, not from the grindings of 
careless laws inexorable, but from Him who 
died for men, who loves men, who, seeing 
the end from the beginning, lovingly ap- 
points the best for those He loves — then 
here is strength to do and here strength to 
endure. The loving rule of the Pierced 
Hand is best, and because I am under the 
loving rule of the Pierced Hand I can be 
strong. 

Also, Christ gives such inward power to 
men by His oum Indwelling, In the old Gov- 



The Strengthening Christ, 475 

enant there was but one place where the 
Shekinah of God's special presence gleam- 
ed— in solitude, in loneliness, in the Holy 
of Holies, behind the awful forbidding cur- 
tain which only the High Priest might lift, 
and he but once a year. Men were apart 
from God, and God was apart from men. 

In the new Covenant the veil of the tem- 
ple is rent in twain from the top to the 
bottom. Through Jesus Christ men may 
go toward God. Through Jesus Christ 
God comes toward men. O how conde- 
scendingly and how closely does He come ! 
The Shekinah goes out upon the lonely 
mercy-seat, that it may set its shining in the 
heart of every believer. The tabernacle of 
God is with men. By the Holy Spirit the 
Godhead makes the believing heart its real 
residence. Know ye not that ye are the 
Temple of God, and that the Spirit of God 
dwelleth in you ?-^ >fe your will weak ? 
Christ will be in you to make it strong. Are 
your passions fiery ? Christ will be in you 
to keep them cool and quiet by His pres- 

* I Corinthians iii. 16. 



4/6 Gleams from PauVs Prison, 

ence. Are you anxious? Christ will be in 
you to whisper, " It is I, be not afraid." 
Does duty seem difficult? Remember the 
lamb upon the fish, the weak believer sup- 
ported by Jesus Christ, God's Son, Saviour. 
O marvellous ministry of power this of 
Christ within a man ; of Christ — not in 
Heaven only — not helping one from with- 
out, as a rnother's strength takes hold ex- 
ternally of the little child— but of Christ 
helping one from wuthin, Himself dwelling 
within, imparting vital and vitalizing 
strength. Ye are of God little children and 
have overcome them ; because greater is 
He that is in you than he that is in the 
world.* What wonder that Paul could not 
only say he was strong enough, but be veri- 
tably strong enough to do all things, when 
he was conscious of the strength within 
himself of the indwelling Christ. Thus, 
then, Christ gives such inward power by His 
own indwelling. 

And now, in the way of suggestion. 

First. Our trouble is that we do not believe 



* I John iv. 4. 



The Stre7tgthening Christ, 477 

enough toward and expect enough from this 
whole strengthening side a7id 7ninistry of our 
Religion. There was a backwoodsman in 
Arkansas who always slept upon the floor 
of his cabin, with only a block of wood for 
a pillow, covered with a coat or other gar- 
ment. His neighbors urged him to send 
for a feather pillow. At last, moved by 
their entreaty, he did send a postage-stamp 
to a firm in St. Louis, asking them to send 
him a single feather. He put the single 
feather upon the block of wood and laid his 
head upon k, and instead of softness found 
only hardness, and at length, in the middle 
of the night, threw the feather away, de- 
claring he would never believe in feather 
pillows. We are too much single-feather 
Christians. We do not get w^hat we ought 
to get out of our religion. We think of it 
too much as a mere means of just escaping 
Hell and just getting into Heaven ; whereas 
there is a whole magazine of vigor in it for 
the living of a righteous life. There is 
power in it here and now through the 
strengthening Christ. Yes, there was, we 



478 Gleams from PaiiVs Prison. 

say, for the Apostle ; but his was a peculiar 
case — there is not for me. And that is just 
our constant, miserable, skeptical heresy — 
Yes, for Paul, but not for me. 

And- yet this triumphant inward strength 
was for Annie Askew. She, a lady of rank 
and beauty, some time a member of the 
queen's court, was burned at Smithfield in 
1546 for holding that in the communion, 
after the consecration, the bread continues 
only bread — which is the truth. And yet, 
on the night before she suffered she sang 
how bravely — 

** Like as the armed knight 
Appointed to the field, 
With this world will I fight. 
And faith shall be my shield. 

** Faith is that weapon strong 
Which will not fail at need ; 

- My foes therefore among 
Therewith will I proceed. 

** On Thee my care I cast, 
For all their cruel spite, 
I set not by their haste, 
For Thou art my delight. 



The Strengthening Christ. 479 

" I am not she that list 
My anchor to let fall 
For every drizzling mist ; 
My ship's substantial."* 

And if for Paul and for Annie Askew, 
why not this inward strength for you and 
m'e? Wny may not such promises as these 
be gripped even by my faith ? Fear thou 
not, for I am with thee ; be not dismayed, 
for I am thy God : I will strengthen thee ; 
yea, I will keep thee ; yea, I will uphold 
thee with the right hand of my righteous- 
ness. They that strive with thee shall per- 
ish. For I, the Lord thy God, will hold thy 
right hand, saying. Fear not, I will help 
thee.f 

Second. // is certain that through the 
strengthening Christ te?nptatto7t and trouble need 
not overcome us. Was it a stra,nge experience 
which he told me ? How he was the victim 
of the annoying and, as he knew, despicable 
habit of profanity ; how by all the lower 

* **Our Christian Classics," by Dr. James Hamil- 
ton, p. 46 

f Isaiah xli. 10, 13. 



480 Gleams from Paul V Prison, 

motives he sought to overcome it, because 
it was useless, because it was ungentleman- 
ly, because it would injure his reputation, 
because — a nobler reason and a better — it 
damaged his fine sense of manhood." But 
how, again and again, though he girded 
himself against it by such considerations as 
these, the evil habit would assert itself. 
Then how, giving himself to Christ, he 
sought sincerely Christ's strengthening 
presence, and how the habit fell away from 
him, as the dried leaf, hanging on the 
branch the winter long, falls off by the 
pressure of the living leaf-bud swelling be- 
hind it in the genial airs of the spring sun. 
It was not a strange experience. It was 
one that is repeated. It is one that you and 
I can have repeated amid our temptations 
and our trials. There may be for us the 
strengthening Christ. 

Well, it is the meaning and the victory of 
the Christian life to learn this lesson of the 
strengthening Christ. Do not let us be 
discouraged. I do not think it is a lesson 



The Strengthening Christ, 481 

usually gotten suddenly. I doubt if Paul 
got it suddenly. Even Paul says, For I 
have learned in whatsoever state I am, there- 
with to be content through the strengthen- 
ing Christ. But let us set ourselves at the 
learning it ; let us determine to know it. 
What a reach and growth of experience be- 
tween the ^^ Who art thou. Lord ? " on the 
road to Damascus, and the "I can do all 
things through Christ which strengtheneth 
me," here at Rome! Paul grew in grace. 
Let us see to it that we grow in this grace 
of nobler faith in, and readier recognition 
of, and sweeter, deeper communion with, 

THE STRENGTHENING ChRIST. 



31 



CHAPTER XIX. 

FRUIT. 

AS we have often had occasion to notice, 
the thoughtful and loving Philippians 
had sent, by the hand of Epaphroditus, a 
gift to Paul, by means of which the impris- 
oned Apostle could pay for the "hired 
house " in which he dwelt at Rome, and 
supply, as well, his other simple wants, 
toward the filling of which his own chained 
hands were just now helpless. 

Grateful as Paul was for the gift itself, 
his gratitude was far deeper for that spirit 
in the Philippians of which the gift was 
proof and symbol. In the eyes of the Apos- 
tle the gift was a most precious Fruit of 
Christian character and feeling. That the 
Philippians were Christians of such Fruit- 
yielding sort was his chief thankfulness. It 
is thus he writes to them about it : 
(482) 



Fruit, 483 

Not because I desire a gift ; but I desire Fruit that 
may abound to your account. But I have all, and 
abound : I am full, having received from Epaphro- 
ditus the things which were sent from you, an odor of 
a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to 
God. But my God shall supply all your need accord- 
ing to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.* 

Christian Fruity then, is manifestly the 
central thought of this Scripture. Let our 
present chapter detain itself wilj^ this. From 
the light of this Scripture three separate 
gleams break upon this matter. There is 
light, first, concerning the Fruit itself ; sec- 
ond, concerning the Results of Fruit-bearing ; 
third, concerning the Ability of Fruit-bear- 
ing. 

First, then, let us think together of the 
Fruit itself — Not because I desire a gift : 
but I desire Fruit. 

Consider, that Christians should hear Fruit 
is a main end of their being Christia?is, Look 
into Nature and you will discover that fruit- 
fulness is God's main end there. It is for 



Philippians iy. 17, 18, 19, 



484 Gleams from PaiiVs Prison, 

the fruit that seeds swell and burst, thrust- 
ing up their plumule and thrusting down 
their delicate white rootlets ; it is for the 
fruit that trees rear the columns of their 
trunks and grasp the granite with their- 
roots and hang out their leaves and push 
their fruit-buds into flower, and in woody 
covering like the cocoa-palm, or horny cap- 
sule like the oak, or prickly burr like the 
chestnut, develop and inclose and defend 
their fruit. Plants and trees serve, of course, 
other and subsidiary uses, but their fruit is 
their chief end. ''The whole mass of the 
earth, from pole to pole and from center to 
circumference, has been weighed in the bal- 
ance and exquisitely adjusted, to enable the 
snowdrop to hang its head, and allow the 
pollen of the shorter stamens to fall upon 
the longer stigma, and so produce its fruit. 
In order to produce fruitfulness the dimen- 
sions of the solar system, the axial rotation 
of the earth, and the changes of the seasons 
have all been adapted. For this the laws of 
the inorganic world have been made to 
agree in every point with those of the or- 



Fruit, 485 

ganic world. For this storm and calm, sun- 
shine and cloud, dew and rain, day and 
night, seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, 
summer and winter succeed each other. 
For this all the processes of vegetable life 
are busy, from the sprouting germ of spring 
to the sere and yellow leaf of autumn. 
Fruitfulness is the focus into which all the 
various secondary purposes of Nature are 
concentrated, the end towardfivhich all her 
energies are bent."* 

Here is some poor weed or other growing 
by the wayside. It is trodden on ; the soil 
about it is beaten together and hardened by 
the tramp of feet. It is a difficult place for 
the little plant. What does it do ? Give 
up, wither away, die, say to itself, " No 
plant could bear fruit in such a place, it is 
not worth the trying " ? Watch it. See 
what it does. It hurries on to fruit. It is 
bound to fulfil its destiny. You will notice 
that, as it it somehow knew its danger, it 
stops spending its strength in growing high, 
and begins to put all its energy into flower 

* " The True Vine," by Hugh Macmillan, p. 131. 



4^^ Gleams from PaiiTs Prison, 

and f:-uit; though its sister plants, in more 
f ivorable conditions, wait to push them- 
selves more loftily before they proceed to 
hang themselves about with fruitage. Any- 
way, the poor v/eed will reach its destiny of 
fruit, though it be in such bad plight for 
truit-bearing, if by any means it can. 

Here is a little Alpine plant, perched upon 
some mountain summit, where the tempests 
crash, whereHIhe snows encamp, where the 
warmest nights are chill with the breath of 
winter, where at best, out of the whole 
round year, the little plant can have, in 
the very noon and crisis of the summer, 
but a few short weeks to grow in — poor 
little plant, what will it do in such a hos- 
tile world ? Give up, and say there is no 
chance in such a world for such a perse- 
cuted, storm-badgered, rock-surrounded, in- 
significant bit of an Alpine plant? Not so. 
It recognizes its destiny. It hastens toward 
its destiny. It turns every energy to fruit- 
bearing. It is careless about its leaves. It 
has no time or chance to have much care 
for them. But it hurries into large and 



Fruit, 487 

brilliant flower, and urges the flower quickly 
on into the fruit. With an invincible te- 
nacity ic holds on to its duty of fruit-bear- 
ing. So everywhere you will find that 
Fruit is the main end toward which God 
looks in Nature. 

And if you will turn from God's Scripture 
of Nature, which talks about trees and 
flowers, to God's Scripture of the Bible, 
which talks about Christians,^you will dis- 
cover that here, too, God's main end is 
Fruit. I am the true vine and my Father 
is the husbandman. Every branch in Me 
that beareth not Fruit He taketh av/ay : 
and every branch that beareth Fruit, He 
purgeth it, that it may bring forth more 
Fruit. Herein is my Father glorified that 
ye bear 7nuch Fruit ; so shall ye be My dis- 
ciples.* The proof and condition of disci- 
pleship is much Fruit-bearing. 

Thus, as in Nature, so in Grace, the end 
toward which God looks is Fruit. As, miss- 
ing that, the whole economy of Nature 



* John XV. I, 2, 8. 



488 Gleams from Paul's Prison. 

would be missed, so, missing that, the whole 
economy of Grace is missed. 

Consider — Of what sort the Fruit may be 
7iuhich Christians are to bear. The Scripture 
is very full and clear in information here. 
But the Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, 
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 
meekness, temperance ; against such there 
is no law.* Look carefully and you will 
see that this various Fruitage hangs in three 
distinct and precious clusters — the cluster 
of the Christian life \n itself, the cluster of 
the Christian feeling toward others, the clus- 
ter of the principles which should guide the 
conduct of Christians. This is the cluster 
of the Christian life in itself — Love, joy, 
peace ; in his own heart the Christian 
should be full of love to God, shining with 
joy, serene with peace. This is the cluster 
of the Christian feeling toward others — 
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness ; long- 
suffering — the Christian should not be a 
powder-magazine, quick to explode at any 
little irritation : he should be patiently en- 

* Galatians v. 22, 23. 



Fruit. 489 

during rather under injuries which others 
may inflict ; gentleness — the Christian 
should be beautiful and bounteous with a 
loving, genial feeling toward others ; good- 
ness — the Christian should go forth toward 
others in a real and active beneficence : he 
should not ask so much how the self is get- 
ting on as how others are getting on ; a 
servant came to the door of her mistress 
about three o'clock one afternoon, and said, 
'' What is there for me to do now ? " ^' Go 
up-stairs and rest," answered the lady ; the 
girl looked hurt a*nd went away ; months 
afterward, when she came to know the lady 
better, she said, " I thought you were dis- 
pleased with me on that day ; nobody ever 
told me to rest before in all the years I have 
been at service " — that was the real Fruit of 
a Christian goodness, a thoughtful, active 
beneficence toward others hanging itself 
upon the life of this mistress of a home. 
This is the cluster of the principles which 
should guide the conduct of a Christian-^- 
faith, meekness, temperance ; faith, that is 
faithfulness, trustworthiness, fidelity, hon- 



490 Gleams from Paul's Prison, 

esty ; meekness, that is self - forgetting 
readiness in lowly service, as when Jesus, 
knowing that the Father had given all 
things into His hands, and that He was 
come from God and went to God, bent His 
greatness down even to the washing the 
disciplesV feet ; temperance, that is self- 
control, bitting and bridling and reining in 
passions and desires. Of such sort, then, are 
the Fruits which God expects in Christians. 
And the Apostle was so thankful for this 
thoughtful gift of the Philippians because it 
was substantial, definite evidence of their 
spiritual Fruitfulness. It gathered up into 
itself and illustrated love and self-sacrifice 
and beneficence and painstaking, meek 
service. 

Consider — that Christian Fruit must spring 
always out of the sacrifice of the lower self. 
That is a wonderful fact in Nature, that 
fruity toward which the plant so hastens, 
and upon the bearing of which it takes such 
tough, tenacious hold, is always the result 
of sacrifice on the plant's part. " The bud 
of a plant which, under the ordinary laws 



Fruit, 491 

of vegetation, would have elongated into a 
leafy branch, remains in the special case 
shortened, and develops finally, according 
to some regular law, blossom and fruit in- 
stead. Its further growth is thus stayed ; 
it has attained the end of its existence ; its 
life terminates with the ripe fruit which 
drops off to the ground. Whereas the bud 
which does not produce a flower or fruit 
grows into a branch, lives for years, may 
ultimately attain almost the dimensions of 
the main trunk itself, clothed with half the 
foliage of the tree. In producing blossom 
and fruit, therefore, a branch sacrifices it- 
self, yields up its own individual vegetative 
life for the sake of another life that is to 
spring from it and to perpetuate the spe- 
cies.*'* It is a law most wonderful but 
most real in the vegetable kingdom. You 
see illustrations of it every season. How 
many fair and fragrant plants which we 
call annuals, after bursting into the beauty 
of their bloom, as soon as they have ma- 
tured their seed, sink down and die, long 

* **The True Vine," Hugh Macmillan, p. 138. 



4g2 Gleams from PaiiVs Prison, 

before the summer ceases. They have given 
their whole being to the production of the 
fruit. There is the Amefican Aloe of the 
Mexican table-lands, which wrongly goes 
among us by the name of the century plant. 
It blossoms and pushes into fruit but seldom ; 
but when it does, on the entire plant you 
can see written the law of sacrifice for the 
sake of fruit-bearing. All its huge, thick, 
fleshy leaves shrink and come to almost 
nothing as the plant shoots up feet high its 
straight, strong stalk, and hangs upon it 
coronals of flowers and perfects its fruit. 
Fruit-bearing is the result of sacrifice. 

Again, as in Nature, so in Grace. No man 
or woman can bear genuinely Christian 
Fruit who does not give up and give over 
into Christ's hands the old, bad, sinful self. 
The beginning condition of a Christian 
Fruit-bearing is the sacrifice of the self to 
Christ. The old life of self-pleasing be- 
comes changed through sacrifice into a life 
of Christ-pleasing. The time past must 
suffice the Christian to have wrought the 
will of the flesh ; now he must live unto 
Him who died for him and rose again. 



Fruit, 493 

So much, then, as to Christian Fruit in 
itself. It is the main end, that which God 
peculiarly expects of Christians ; its sort is 
what the Scriptures so plainly tell us are 
the Fruits of the Spirit ; it springs from the 
sacrifice of the old life, that that old life 
may become changed into the new life 
which is in Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Turn, now, to notice, in the second place, 
some of the results of Christian Fruit-bearing, 
Not because I desire a gift : but I desire 
Fruit that may abound to your account. 

Even though Fruit does spring out of 
Sacrifice, a Christian can not bring it forth 
and not receive into his own bosom a return 
most precious. To his own account it will 
abound. It is only a child's story, but it 
tells a mighty truth for life : 

A little boy once went home to his mother, and 
said — *' Mother, sister and I went out into the garden, 
and we were calling about, and there was some boy 
mocking us." 

** How do you mean, Johnny? " said his mother. 

" Why," said the child, " I was calling out ' Ho ! ' 
and this boy said * Ho ! * So I said to him, * Who are 



494 Gleams from Paul ^s Prison, 

you?' and he answered, 'Who are you?' I said, 
'Why don't you show yourself?' He said, 'Show 
yourself.' And I jumped over the ditch, and 1 went 
into the wood, and I could not find him, and I came 
back and said, ' If you don't come out, I'll strike you,' 
and he said, ' Til strike you.' " 

So his mother said : " Ah, Johnny, if you had said, 
'I love you,' he would have said, 'I love you.' If 
you had said, * Your voice is sweet,' he would have 
said, ' Your voice is sweet.' Whatever you said to 
him, he would have said back to you." And the 
mother said: "Now, Johnny, when you grow and 
get to be a man, whatever you will say to others they 
will by and by say back to you "; and his mother took 
him to that old text in the Scripture, " With what 
measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." 

Ah, deep lesson, deep lesson ! What 
abounds to our account is really the result 
and echo of the sort of Fruit we bear our- 
selves. 

When we bear Christian Fruit there are 
two kinds of results abounding to our ac- 
count. A result in this world. A result in 
the world to come. 

A result in this world. There come back 
to you the bliss and peace of sacrifice, the 
inner joy of doing duty, the consciousness 



Fruit, 495 

of God's smile thrusting its sunshine into 
your deepest heart. For mark what the 
Apostle says concerning the result of this 
Fruit which the Philippians bore — The 
things that came from you, an odoi' of asweet 
smelly a sac7^ifice acceptable^ well pleasing to God, 
That the Fruit we bear wafts precious per- 
fume Godward must be solid reason for 
serene joy inward and for the self. 

*' For who gives, giving doth win back his gift ; 
And knowledge by division grows to more ; 
Who hides his Master's talent shall die poor, 
And starve at last of his" own thankless thrift. 

*' I did this for another ; and behold 

My work hath blood in it !^ but thine hath none ; 
Done for thyself it dies in being done ; 
To what thou buyest thou thyself art sold. 

'* Give thyself utterly away. Be lost. 

Choose some one, something ; not thyself, thine 

own ; 
Thou canst not perish, but, thrice greater grown, 
Thy gain the greatest where thy loss was most. 

■' Thou in another shalt thyself need find. 
The single globule lost in the wide sea. 
Becomes an ocean. Each identity 
Is greatest in the greatness of its kind. 



49^ Gl^^^'^s from Paul 's Prison. 

** Who serves for gain, a slave by thankless pelf 
Is paid ; who gives himself is priceless, free. 
I give myself, a man, to God : lo, He 
Renders me back a saint unto myself." 

There is suc/i abounding to one's own ac- 
count from Christian Fruit-bearing even in 
this world. 

But from Christian Fruit-bearing there 
shall be result also in the world to come ; 
there, too, shall it abound to one's account. 
The doctrine of Avorks — we drop it alto- 
gether too much out of our Protestantism. 
The doctrine of justification by faith alone 
— we can not hold to it too firmly ; it is the 
article of a standing or a falling church ; it 
is the truth ; we are not justified by works. 
But while this is so, we should not forget 
or slight the fact that there is a grand 
shining place for works in the religion of 
the New Testament ; that evermore our 
works are the necessary proof of faith, and 
that while faith is the basis of our justifica- 
tion, works are as really the basis of our 
reward. The new birth, our entrance into 
the new life, our admission into Heaven, does 



Fruit, 497 

depend upon our faith ; but having passed 
into the new life, the sort and largeness and 
nature of our reward does depend upon 
our works. There are diversities in glory. 
There shall be for some a nobler and more 
exalted Heaven than for others. There 
shall be upper seats and lower in . the 
Heavenly Sanctuary. There shall be a 
warmer welcome for some than others. 
And the comparative meagreness or munifi- 
cence of that future reward shall be accord- 
ing to our works, according to our Chris- 
tian Fruitfulness. That man who, upon the 
only foundation which can be laid, Christ 
Jesus, builds only wood, hay, and stubble, 
shall be saved so as by fire, for by faith he 
is on Christ Jesus, but he shall get only the 
wood, hay, and stubble reward. That man 
who on that foundation builds, instead, 
gold, silver, precious stones — is not only 
saved by faith, but he also enters into the 
gold, silver, precious stone reward.* Ah, 
many that are first shall be last, and the last 
first. f Many a one of whom the world 

" I Corinthians iii. ii, 15. f Matthew xix. 30. 



49S Gleams from Paul's Prison. 

thought much — too much, perhaps, for the 
man's best good — who really had a little 
vital spark of faith, but did not let that bit 
of better life develop into much Fruit-bear- 
ing, was one of your half-and-half Chris- 
tians, was never much in love or joy or 
peace, was never in his feelings toward 
others very patient or gentle or kindly 
good, was more distinguished for a sharp 
bargain than for a real and self-forgetting 
faithfulness, was not much meek, nor ever 
greatly girded by a noble self-control, may 
get into Heaven — even the penitent thief 
was saved — but as to Fruit which shall 
abound to his account in that great world 
yonder, as to grand and high reward, how 
poor comparatively his destiny. But that 
old negro woman whom one of the Profes- 
sors in the Fisk University in Nashville met 
one day, and who, coming up to him, and 
asking him if he did not recall her, and to 
his answer that he did not, answered, " I 
'spect you doesn't. Well, down yonder, 
sah, when dis yere school was a baby, you 
know, down yonder in de guv'ment build- 



I 



Fruit, 499 

ings, my Paulphemie went to your paid 
school ; she got religion thar, and — and *' 
(wiping slowly her eyes) "she done got de 
choleray and done died, nigh on ter fourteen 
year ago now, sah. Praise de Lord ! she 
got religion, and she gone home ter glory ! " 
And then the poor old thing, after placing 
her walking-stick so that she could safely 
lean on it and have her hands free, removed 
from her bosom a handkerchief, and with 
trembling lingers untied a knot in one cor- 
ner ; then she placed in the Professor's 
hand, counting them out one by one, six 
silver dollars. " For my Paulphemie's larn- 
in', sah. I couldn't pay it sooner, sah ; but 
sure 'nough, it's done laid like a stone right 
here all dese years," she said, putting her 
hand on her heart. " T prayed de Lord, an' 
I said, ^ O ! good Lord, don't lemme come 
home to glory till I done paid for Paul- 
phemie's larnin' ! ' It's a pretty day, sah ; 
I lives a right smart o' way yonder, an' my 
ole feet don't go fast, so good-evening" 
— this old negro woman who could not be 
prevailed upon to take the money back, and 



500 Gleams from Paul's Prison, 

concerning whom the Professor, walking 
homeward thoughtfully, asked himself, and 
rightly, how he could dare to pity a soul so 
noble — ah, I think, many such as she, who 
are last here, whom the world despises, 
shall be first There, when the reckoning 
comes to be made by the exactly just Christ 
between the Fruit and the account. 

So, then, in the other world also, and 
surely, there shall be results from a Chris- 
tian Fruit-bearing. 

Turn to notice, in the third place and in the 
last, the Ability of a Christian Fruit-bearing. 
But my God shall supply all your need ac- 
cording to His riches in glory by Christ 
Jesus.* This ability of Fruit-bearing is not 
in ourselves. It is in Him. We receive it 
as we abide in Him. Even as Christ has 
told us, Abide in Me and I in you. As the 
branch can not bear Fruit of itself, except it 
abide in the vine ; no more can ye, except 
ye abide in Me. He that abideth in Me and 
I in him, the same bringeth forth much 

* Philippians iv. 19. 



Fruit, 501 

Fruit ; for without Me ye can do nothing. 
If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as 
a branch, and is withered ; and men gather 
them and cast them into the fire, and they 
are burned.* 

When the good and great Dr. James 
Alexander, of Princeton, lay dying, a friend 
who came in to comfort him, said, repeating 
the Scripture as it is too usually repeated — 
I know in Whom I have believed. From 
what seemed a state of unconsciousness, the 
old saint roused himself to tell his latest tes- 
timony. ^^ No," he said, " I can not allow 
even a preposition between me and my 
Saviour," and, quoting the passage rightly, 
added — I know Whom I have believed.f 

And this is a truth for life as well as for 
death — the Christian so close to Christ that 
nothing shall be allowed between. And in 
this close abiding, and nowhere else, can be 
found Ability of Christian Fruit-bearing. 
Oh, for us, conscious of 'such meagre and 
shrivelled Fruit upon the branches of our 
lives — here is the trouble, we are not so 

* John XV. 4, 5, 6. f 2 Timothy i. 12. 



502 Gleams from PatcVs Pi^ison. 

close to Christ that we consciously abide in 
Him. We can not bear Fruit of ourselves, 
but in Him we can. And if we will but 
have it so, if we will but maintain ourselves 
in this sweet closeness, He ,whom the Apos- 
tle called ^' My God " shall supply all our 
need, shall give us grand Ability, according 
to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus, unto 
Whom, our God and Father, be glory unto 
the ages of the ages. Amen. 



CHAPTER XX. 

SAINTS IN Caesar's household. 

IT is thus the Apostle closes the Epistle 
to the Philippians : 

All the saints salute you, chiefly they that are of 
Caesar's household. The Grace of our Lord Jesus 
Christ be with you all. Amen.* 

Of these Saints in Caesar's household, and 
of the Grace which made them Saints and 
caused them to triumph, let us think to- 
gether. 

And yet we must not restrict Caesar's 
household to our modern and simpler no- 
tions of a household. Caesar's was a vast 
and complicated mass of human beings. 
Here, for instance, is a very meagre cata- 

* Philippians iv. 22, 23. 

(503) 



504 Gleams from Paul's Prison. 

logue of only a few of the officers in this 
household of Caesar : — Teacher of the chil- 
dren, steward of the household, overseer of 
the tribute, chief of the door-keepers, super- 
intendent of the foretasters — you see Caesar 
was continually afraid of being poisoned ; 
in order to be defended from poisoning, 
others must always taste his food before it 
touched his lips ; if there were poison in 
the food it would show itself in these ; and 
so a very important officer in Caesar's house- 
hold was the superintendent of these fore- 
tasters — chief of the golden vessels, super- 
intendent of baths, a lapidary, one whose 
duty it was to hang the fragrant cedar or 
juniper upon the walls, a purveyor of corn, 
a keeper of the list of the horses, a keeper 
of dogs, an architect, a carrier of letters, a 
superintendent of the reservoirs which sup- 
plied the palaces with water, a surgeon, an 
oculist, a keeper of apartments, a teller of 
names — when Caesar went abroad it was the 
duty of a special person to go with him to 
tell the names of those he met — a watch- 
word teller — he was the one who received 



Saints in Ccesar's Household, 505 

from the Emperor, and told to others whose 
duty required them to know it, the watch- 
word for the night — the arranger of the 
people at the theatres, the superintendent 
of the choirs of boys and girls whose sing- 
ing regaled Caesar at his feasts, footmen — 
men whose duty it was to carry the royal 
chair or sedan when Caesar chose to go out 
in this fashion — cooks, money-changers, 
menders of sandals, servants of the bed- 
chambers, superintendent of tables — I sup- 
pose he was the man who overlooked the 
arrangements of the various feasts — porters, 
ornamenters, men whose duty it was to 
anoint with oils after the baths, barbers, 
etc., etc., endlessly.* This is but a slight 
list. Besides, many of these officers were 
matched with those like them in the other 
sex whose duty it was to attend to the 
female occupants of the palace. And then, 
besides, these officers and others like them 
had beneath themselves hundreds and thou- 
sands of slaves, who thus also belonged to 
Caesar's household. And still, besides, the 

* Lightfoot on Philippians, p. 170. 



So6 Gleams from Paul's Prison, 

dite corps of the whole army, the Praetorian 
guard, who had their vast camp at no great 
distance from the palace, and some of 
whom were always quartered in the palace 
and stood sentinel about the entrances, to 
which favorite corps was committed in a 
special manner Caesar's safety — these also 
were in a sense members of his household. 
So Caesar's household comprised an enor- 
mous mingling of the most various sorts of 
persons. It numbered thousands. 

It is not needful, therefore, to suppose 
that these Saints of whom Paul speaks as 
belonging to Caesar's household were neces- 
sarily in very close connection with Caesar 
himself. We need not think of them as 
being great officers of State, in high rank 
and lifted place. The strong probability is, 
the most of them were not. You remember 
how Paul writes to the Corinthians of the 
usual place in life of the early Christians. 
For ye see your calling, brethren, how that 
not many wise men after the flesh, not 
many mighty, not many noble, are called : 
but God hath chosen the foolish things of 



Saints in Ccesars Household, 507 

the world to confound the wise ; and God 
hath chosen the weak things of the world 
to confound the things which are mighty ; 
and base things of the worid^ and things 
which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, 
and things which are not, to bring to 
naught things that are : that no flesh 
should glory in His presence.* 

And yet we should think wrongly, if we 
thought that none of these Saints in Caesar's 
household were in lifted place. While not 
many noble were called, some who were 
noble were. It is not at all improbable that 
some of that long list of persons to whom 
Paul sent special salutation when he came 
to the close of the Epistle to the Romans 
were of these Saints in Caesar*s household. 
They were Christians before Paul himself 
had come to Rome. And comparing the 
names mentioned in that last chapter of the 
Epistle to the Romans with the inscriptions 
which have been discovered, and with the 
histories of the time which have come down 
to us, we find various names which suggest, 

* I Corinthians i. 26-29. 



5o8 Gleams from Paul's Prison. 

at least, the very strong probability that the 
Christians bearing them stood in more real 
and close relation with Caesar, and were in 
higher and more unusual posts. Ampliatus 
is such a name, and Urbanus, and Stachys, 
and Apelles, and Philologus, and Julia, and 
Nereus. The way in which such names as 
these have been found upon inscriptions 
suggests the strong likelihood that they or 
some of their relatives stood more within 
the inner circle of Caesar's Court.* 

You see here the value of the lists of 
names which sometimes occur in the Script- 
ure, which perhaps we have too hastily 
thought were useless. Here is only another 
illustration of the truth that all Scripture — 
even a dry catalogue of names — is profit- 
able. 

So this is the fact at which we get. While 
Paul was held here a prisoner at Rome 
there were Saints in Caesar's household, 
most of them but on the household's rim, 
standing in the petty offices or among the 
throng of oppressed and helpless slaves, 

* Lightfoot on Philippians, pp. 171-5. 



Saints in Ccesars Household. 509 

but some of them probably more lifted and 
standing in greater personal nearness to the 
man whose nod or wink even meant to all 
of them life or death. 

And now, though we know so little of 
them, so immensely less than we would like 
to know, and though they are separated 
from us by so many centuries, these Saints 
in Caesar's household may be the teachers 
to us of some most valuable lessons. 

The Unitifig Power of Chrisfs Gospel is one 
lesson. All the Saints salute you, writes 
Paul, chiefly they of Caesar's household. 
All the Saints — whether they were highest 
or whether they were lowest, whether they 
were freedmen or whether they were slaves, 
whether they were richest or whether they 
were poorest, all were full of a saluting love 
for their Brethren at Philippi. 

This was a most marvellous fact for these 
times, that people of such various sorts and 
conditions should have the slightest regard, 
not to say love, for each other. It was a 
fact absolutely unique. Dr. Maclaren, of 



5IO Gleams from Paul's Prison, 

Manchester, England, has told so truly the 
hard and jagged separations between men 
at that time and the wonderful unifying in- 
fluence of the Gospel, that I can not do 
better than quote his words : " The world then 
was like some great field of cooled lava on 
the slopes of a volcano, all broken up by a 
labyrinth of clefts and cracks, at the bottom 
of which one can see the flicker of sulphur- 
ous flame. Great gulfs of national hatred, 
of fierce enmities of race, language, and re- 
ligion ; wide separations of social condition, 
far profounder than anything of the sort 
which we know, split mankind into frag- 
ments. On the one side was the freeman, 
on the other the slave ; on the one side the 
Gentile, on the other the Jew ; on the one 
side the insolence and hard-handedness of 
Roman rule, on the other the impotent and, 
therefore, envenomed hatred of conquered 
peoples. And all this fabric, full of active 
repulsions and disintegrating forces, was 
bound together into an artificial and unreal 
unity by the iron clamp of Rome's power, 
holding up the bulging walls that were 



Saints in Ccesars Household. 511 

ready to fall — the unity of the slave-gang 
manacled together for easier driving. Into 
this hideous condition of things the Gospel 
comes, and silently flings its clasping ten- 
drils over the wide gaps, and binds the 
crumbling structure of human society with 
anew bond, real and living.'** Bound by 
this new and vital borid the highest Saint 
in Caesar's household was at one with the 
lowest, and both and all were one with the 
Saints at Philippi, even though they may 
have never seen or known each other. 

The Gospel united all. Christ's Saints 
were one. There was an inner, deeper, 
clasping union underrunning all the more 
surface divisions of station in life, or wealth 
or poverty, or belonging to this city or race 
or that. 

The lesson for us who are now Christians 
is this, that Christ's Gospel has not 
changed. Neither to-day is the saintly 
spirit one toward division and disunion, 
but one toward union. Remember a test 
which John has given us by which we may 

* *' Week-day Evening Addresses," p. 126. 



512 Gleams from PauVs Prison. 

^ry ourselves as to whether we are genu- 
inely Christian or not : — We know that we 
have passed from death unto life because 
we love the brethren. He that loveth not 
his brother abideth in death.* And this 
loving does not mean merely tolerating the 
brethren, but actually loving them. 

We need this saintly unity in our 
churches. Too often are they split up into 
little cliques and miserable sets. Too often 
are the social distinctions of the outside 
world imported into the sacred brotherhood 
and sisterhood, fracturing unity. Too often 
do those, for years members of the same 
church and drinking from the same com- 
munion cup, not know each other, and, 
what is worse, not care to know each other. 
I am ashamed sometimes when I am told 
that the tie among secular societies is closer 
than the tie between Christians, between 
members of the same church. But still you 
can not change the Gospel. Still a main 
test of being a Christian is that you loroe the 
Brethren, not merely that you are on the 

* I John iii. 14. 



Saints in Ccesars Household, 513 

most coldly distant speaking terms with 
them. Still and for to-day the genuinely 
Saintly spirit is this which Paul expresses — 
All the Saints salute you, chiefly they that 
are of Caesar's household. 

We need this saintly spirit of a real sweet 
unity in our business. Greedy oppressions 
of corporations, and there are such oppres- 
sions ; mutterings of communism; useless 
and prodigal strikes, where the working- 
man every time loses more than he can pos- 
sibly ever gain ; all this discontented and 
strained relation between employer and em- 
ploy^ — the radical cure for them is Christ's 
Gospel, the at-the-root remedy is this recog- 
nition of the unity and brotherhood of men 
in Jesus Christ. I know a village where 
there are rich capitalists and thousands of 
employes. If only political economists would 
see there how the problem of labor and cap- 
ital has been at least measurably solved. 
*^ The best boss in the world," one of the 
laborers said to me walking with him along 
the street. I do not think you could get up 
a strike in that village. Why ? These cap- 



514 Gleams from PaitVs Prison, 

italists in the highest, broadest, noblest 
sense are Saints. They are full of this 
saintly spirit of unity with their employes. 
So they are just. So they see to it that the 
houses in which their employes live are de- 
cent and well drained. They think more of the 
men than they do of money ; and yet, in the 
compensations of Providence, they get the 
money, and miss much trouble in getting it 
through their high sympathizing Sainthood. 
Christ's Gospel is the best cure for labor 
troubles. When will men learn it ? When 
will men learn this saluting each other in 
the unity of brotherhood ? Say, my brother, 
that poor girl whom you employ in your 
store or manufactory — have you seen that, 
as far as possible, she has pure air to 
breathe, and in the bitter weather a warm 
place to work in ? Sainthood will do it. 
All the Saints salute you. The spirit of 
Sainthood is that of a tender and loving 
Unity. 

The fact that men and women can be Saints 
in most difficidt places is another lesson we 



Saints in Ccesar's Household, 515 

should learn at the hands of these Saints in 
Caesar's household. I am sure you could 
not imagine a place in which it would be 
harder to be a Saint than the household of 
Caesar. The Caesar of this time was Nero — 
I suppose, without exception, the worst of 
men. Coming to the Purple at seventeen, 
as he grew in age he grew into titanic vice. 
He slew Britannicus, the son of Claudius, 
the Emperor before him, and who was the 
rightful heir. His wife Octavia, whose pure 
character shines out like a star amid the 
midnight blackness of that awful time, he 
discarded for the worst women ; and 
finally, because Octavia's life stood in the 
way of his outrageous lusts, on a trumped 
up charge of adultery, of which she was as 
innocent as the sunlight, he slew her also. 
About two years before the arrival of Paul 
at Rome, Nero had committed the crime of 
matricide. Instigated by the unholy Pop- 
paea, whom he had married twelve days 
after the death of the pure Octavia, and 
who looked upon Nero's mother, Agrippina, 
as a hindrance in her own way, Nero had a 



5i6 Gleams from Paul's Prison. 

decoy ship built, so joined by bolts that 
being suddenly withdrawn the ship would 
go to pieces, and, with all fawning and 
hypocritical affection, enticing his own 
mother aboard at night, meant to sink her 
thus in the waters of the Lucrine Lake. 
And when this foulest of stratagems failed, 
the monster ordered her dispatched in her 
own house in her own bed by the blows of 
soldiers. Nero was a man " who expended 
more ingenuity in contriving new modes of 
dishonoring humanity than most Christians 
have in serving it, and who earned the rep- 
utation of introducing into history, as facts, 
crimes so enormous and combinations of 
wickedness so revolting that but for him 
they would have been held too fabulous for 
the wildest fancy." When the boy Britan- 
nicus, the son of Claudius, and who right- 
fully should have worn the Purple in Nero*s 
stead, was borne out from the feast room rigid 
with the deadly poison which had just been 
given him in his food by Nero's order, 
Nero, turning lazily on his couch, remarked 
that that death rigor was but a fit of epi- 



Saints in Ccesars Household, 517 

lepsy, to which Britannicus was subject. 
Nero built a golden house, which is thus 
described : '^ Its colonnades were each a 
mile long. In its vestibule stood a colossal 
statue of the Emperor one hundred and 
twenty feet high. The other dimensions of 
the palace were on the same scale. It em- 
braced fields and gardens, meadows and 
forests, and even a lake. The walls and 
saloons were overlaid with gold, and adorn- 
ed with precious stones and mother-of-pearl, 
or with glass mirrors which reflected to the 
beholder his entire figure. Smaller apart- 
ments had walls which were completely 
covered with pearls. The banqueting-rooms 
were decorated with special magnificence, 
and the baths offered the rarest luxury. 
The banqueting-rooms had gilded, carved, 
and painted ceilings, which were changed 
to suit the various courses of the meal, and 
so constructed that flowers and perfumes 
could be scattered upon the guests. Water 
from the sea, as well as sulphurated water 
from the springs of the Tiber, was conducted 
to baths through magnificent conduits, and 



5i8 Gleams from Paul's Prison, 

flowed from gold and silver faucets into 
basins of variegated marble, so that it 
looked now red, now green, now white. 
' Now I am lodged as a man should be,' said 
Nero, when he took possession of the pal- 
ace." * But when he would divert suspicion 
from himself for the starting of that vast 
fire whose ravages made room for his golden 
house, Nero imputed the fire to his innocent 
Christian subjects, and wrapping them up 
in beasts* skins set dogs to torture them, 
and smearing them with pitch and setting 
fire to them turned them into torches with 
which to drive away the darkness of the 
night. And the money which reared those 
splendid walls was simply stolen from the 
wide empire by the extortion of an illimit- 
able power. When Poppaea, the infamous 
wife of Nero, whom also he slew finally with 
a brutal kick, went on a journey, she took 
with her five hundred asses in order that 
from their milk cosmetic baths might be 
prepared for her, and every one of these 

* Ulhorn's ** Conflict of Christianity with Heathen- 
ism," p. III. 



Saints hi Ccesars Household. 519 

animals was shod with gold and silver. 
When Nero amused himself with fishing he 
used nets threaded with gold.^^ 

Such lawlessness and luxury in the palace 
were the quick causes of the utmost possi- 
•ble imitations of them among those outside 
the palace. Indeed, the world was rotting. 
There were no laws. There was no safety. 
There was no purity. I may not write the 
words which would give slight hint, even of 
the inconceivable and infernal putrescence 
which touched and damaged everything. 
And over all sat this crowned criminal with 
the sceptre of an absolute and unquestioned 
power in his hands. 

Think now of the relation in which slaves 
stood to Nero himself, and to the throngs 
of Roman noblemen who made him their 
model. Was his master feasting — the slave 
fasting and speechless must stand whole 
nights behind his chair or couch, alert at 
his least wish, wiping off his drunken drivel 
or his vile vomit. Did the slave sneeze, did 
he cough, did he whisper, did weariness 

*-' Ulhcrn, p. 115. 



520 Gleams from PauVs Prison, 

overcome him, did be in any wise disturb 
his master's peace or forget his duty in the 
slightest, did the trembling hand of some 
slave-girl twist wrongly some ringlet as she 
dressed her mistress* hair — a word would 
send them to the scourging till the blood 
came, or fling them into the ponds to fatten 
fishes, or hang them up in crucifixion. Nor 
were slaves alone in such awful plight. 
Freed n en were as well, and men who stood 
in the highest offices of State. The assas- 
sin's stroke, the poison, illegal imprison- 
ment, every most horrid instrument of 
utterly selfish and uncaged power was in 
that power's swift and facile grasp. 

And, passing by the masters — what must 
have been the daily companionships of such 
a place and time, where lust was crowned, 
and cruelty was dominant, and the path of 
such safety as could be had was that of 
falsity and intrigue, and all the air was hos- 
tile with heathen hatreds ? In one of the 
lower rooms, amid the ruins of Caesar's pal- 
ace, was found some years since a ribald 
scratching on the plaster of the wall — a 



Saints in Ccesars Household, 521 

man with an ass's head was represented as 
stretched upon a cross, and near by was the 
rude figure of one kneeling in worship, and 
underneath was written in Greek characters 
the heathen sneer at some humble Christian, 
^^Alexamenos adores his god." 

And yet there were Saints even in Caesar's 
household. Perhaps, as I have already sug- 
gested, the names of some of them are told 
us in the last chapter of the Epistle to the 
Romans. Perhaps Urbanus, the helper in 
Christ, was one of them. Perhaps Staychs, 
the beloved, was another. Perhaps Try- 
phsena and Tryphosa, who labored in the 
Lord, were others. But whether their 4iames 
have come down to us or not, there were 
Saints even in Caesar's household. Even 
there they witnessed a good confession. 
Amid even such foulness they kept a 
Christly purity. Menaced even by such 
risks they held fast their profession. Im- 
mersed even in such companionships they 
w^alked worthy of the vocation whereunto 
they were called. 

What proof here that Sainthood may be 



522 Gleams from PauVs Prison. 

mightier than plight or place, that it may- 
be kinglier than circumstance, that, like the 
pine upon the mountain-ledge, it need not 
despair, but finding root-grasp in the rocks 
even, may grow strong and flourish. 

O Christian business man — complaining 
that it is hard to do business and be Chris- 
tian, excusing your questionable ways of 
trade because others walk in them and com- 
petition is fierce and you must therefore, 
bending the stiffness of your integrity at 
this supposed necessity and that, remaining 
satisfied with being as good as and no 
better than your neighbors on the street, 
remember that there were high white Saints 
in Caesar's household, and that you are in 
the south land, verdurous with springs of 
water, compared with them. 

O Christian wife of a husband who is not 
Christian, who rears no family altar for 
which you long, you who find no genuine 
mating of religious help and feeling, you 
whom difficulty waits on constantly as you 
seek to serve your Christ and to win your 
husband to serve Him with you — it is hard, 



Saints in Ccesar's Household. 523 

I know ; your heart faints often and your 
faith fails and you are weary and anxious 
with your unshared religious responsibility 
for your family ; but remember that there 
were the triumphs of Sainthood in Caesar's 
household, and that your place is a smooth 
Paradise compared with that in which they 
steadily struggled on. 

O young man, lonely and heart-sick as I 
know you often are in the great city, long- 
ing for the home faces and the home fire- 
side, into whose ears the temptations of the 
city will keep singing their siren songs and 
before whose feet they will keep spreading 
their glittering snares ; though perplexed, 
be not despairing ; Sainthood could keep 
chastely pure even in Caesar's household; cer- 
tainly it can hold itself unsmutched from 
the defilements amidst which you must 
walk with eye uplifted and with purpose 
fixed upon the right. 

O any one or all of us, who are calling 
our places hard and our troubles peculiar 
and overmastering, and the providences 
which touch us harsh and hindering, and 



524 Gleams from PauVs Prison. 

our circumstances like Arctic zones rather 
than June airs, and who are disheartened, 
and perhaps murmuring and slipping back, 
let us accept rebuke from the Saints in 
Caesar's household, and be sure there can 
be no excuse for us in such a time and land 
as that in which we live, if we weakly or 
slothfuUy or despondingly refuse to endure 
hardness as good soldiers. 

This is the lesson which, like an invigo- 
rating breath from Heaven, ought to sweep 
upon us across the centuries from these 
Saints in Caesar's household — Sainthood is 
something sturdy. 

The Vitality of Sainthood, what can make if 
conquering — is another lesson we may learn 
from the concluding Apostolic benediction. 

For what is it to be a Saint ? Is it to be 
a perfect person, is it to be one who has at- 
tained sinlessness, one who has already 
won the crown of a complete self-conquest 
for righteousness ? That is to be a Saint 
yonder. The Scripture does not tell of any 
such Saints in this lower world. What is 



1 



Saints in Ccesar's Hotisehold, 525 

it, then, to be a Saint in this lower world ? 
It is to be a person in the process of such 
self-conquest for righteousness, and one in 
such process because a person consecrated. 
That is the New Testament meaning of 
Saint, a separated, consecrated one. And 
separated to Whom, consecrated to Whom ? 
Why, of course, to Jesus Christ. Separated 
to Christ, consecrated to Christ — that it is 
to be a Saint. 

And what then ? Why, the Apostle tells 
us what then in the concluding verse and 
benediction of this Epistle. The Grace of 
our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. 
Amen. Consecrated to Jesus Christ, and 
so a Saint, you get something from Jesus 
Christ enabling you for Sainthood. You 
get Grace from Him. And that Grace 
means everything you need — vigor, persist- 
ence, patience, faith, love, hope ; what ar- 
mory of weapons and furniture of ability to 
fight the fight and endure the trials and win 
the victories of Sainthood you require. 
The Saints in Caesar's household were those 
consecrated to Christ, and therefore filled 



526 Gleams from PauVs Prison » 

with the Grace of Christ, and so were able 
to be Saints even in Caesar's household. 
And there is no vitality and victory of 
Sainthood anywhere save in this consecra- 
tion of the self to Jesus Christ, and this re- 
ception into the self of the Grace of Jesus 
Christ. But in these there is such vitality 
and victory. Closeness to Christ, then, 
daily consecration to Him and daily recep- 
tion of His Grace, is the secret of a triumph- 
ing Sainthood. Not activity the most 
stringent, not prayers the most powerful, 
not sermons the most searching, not sacra- 
ments the most sacred, not creeds the most 
orthodox — nothing can take the place of 
Closeness to Christ, The real vigor of Saint- 
hood is the branch abiding in the vine. 
Without Christ we can do nothing. 

O failing Saints, come back to the source 
and spring of vigor — renewed devotement 
of the self to Christ, renewed reception of 
His Grace. And be you sure that, just as 
no flower in the spring-time can turn itself 
sunward and not find itself strengthened 
and made beautiful by the sunshine wait- 



Saints in Ccesars Household, 527 

ing for it, so no soul can actually and thor- 
oughly turn itself toward Christ and not 
receive the power and the beauty of the 
Grace of Christ. For the eyes of the Lord 
run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to 
show Himself strong in the behalf of them 
whose heart is perfect — ^^held in steady and 
pure intent — toward Him.* 



* 2 Chronicles xvi. 9. 



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